Since Monday morning, hours before the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-1) sentenced Awami League chief and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to death, prosecutors began receiving calls from both local and overseas numbers.
Unknown individuals repeatedly phoned Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam, Special Investigation Officer Tanvir Hassan Zoha, and Additional Attorney General Mizanur Rahman, issuing various threats, including death threats. Such calls continue to reach them today.
“Most of the overseas calls came from the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” said Zoha. “I received a call from a Bangladeshi number (016260415X) this morning. The man on the other end used abusive language and said, ‘Flee the country, or we will come for you.”
At around 10am on Sunday, he said, another call arrived from a UAE number (+971554821373). “The caller used a pitch-shifted voice, but the tone was clearly threatening,” Zoha told the TIMES of Bangladesh.
The prosecutor and special investigation officer have received more than a dozen such calls since Monday morning.
In a consequential judgment, the ICT-1 on handed down death penalty to Hasina and her home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, for crimes against humanity committed during the July 2024 uprising that toppled her regime.
Hasina has since been living in New Delhi under government shelter, while Kamal is also believed to be hiding in India.
Former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun received a lenient sentence of five years’ imprisonment after turning state witness and providing investigators and the tribunal with crucial information about the crimes.
