International Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam on Sunday described the 15-year rule of the Awami League government, led by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as a monstrous one.
“The Awami League government increasingly turned into a monstrous regime over the years. The process began with the Pilkhana carnage, which crippled the country’s defence backbone, followed by a culture of enforced disappearances and killings,” Tajul said while presenting arguments in the crimes against humanity case against Hasina and two others.
Former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun were the two others accused in the case. Acknowledging his guilt, Mamun became an approver.
Outlining the background that led to the mass uprising, the chief prosecutor said the July 2024 mass uprising had become inevitable as the AL government gradually turned into a “monster” during its 15-year rule.
Tajul said the AL government destroyed the country’s electoral system, abolished the caretaker government system, and institutionalised corruption at every level.
“The ultimate goal of the regime was to suppress the people through fear and oppression,” he told a three-member ICT-1 bench headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder.
“This monstrous rule finally unleashed a full-scale assault on our young generation in 2024,” he added.
Hasina set up the tribunal in 2010 to prosecute local collaborators of Pakistani forces, after an earlier attempt was called off following the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding president, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The then top leadership of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which opposed the creation of Bangladesh, and a few BNP leaders were either executed or jailed as per the verdict of this special tribunal. The parties termed those cases politically motivated.
Earlier, a total of 54 prosecution witnesses – including the father of July martyr Abu Sayed and National Citizen Party convener Nahid Islam – testified in the case and were cross-examined by the defence.
Advocate Amir Hossain, the state-appointed counsel for fugitives Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, cross-examined the witnesses.
On 17 June, ICT-1 published notices in two national dailies asking Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to surrender by June 24.
“As per Rule 31 of the International Crimes (Tribunal-1) Rules of Procedure, 2010 (Amendment 2025), they are ordered to surrender before this tribunal on June 24, 2025. Otherwise, the trial will proceed in absentia under Section 10A of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973,” the notice read.
The tribunal issued the notices on June 16 after taking cognisance of the formal charges submitted on June 1.
The Chief Prosecutor informed the court that Hasina and Kamal were absconding, citing intelligence reports suggesting they were in India.
The prosecution brought five charges of crimes against humanity and mass killings against Hasina, Kamal, and Mamun, based on a probe report filed by the ICT investigation agency on May 12.
The tribunal framed the charges against the trio on July 10 last year.
