New Delhi: Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sk Hasina, who has been in exile in India since the ouster of her government in August 2024, has sent a legal notice to Dhaka, seeking that her death sentence be set aside as “legally void”.
Any further proceedings against her are to be conducted in compliance with international fair trial standards, she has said.
In 2025, a tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced Hasina to death, after accusing her of being involved in the deaths of students who were part of the July uprising that led to the fall of her Awami League government.
Hasina made these demands to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka through her London-based solicitors Kingsley Napley, as reported by Hindustan Times.
She made this move more than a month after Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) took over as prime minister of the country, following a landslide victory in the general election. The Awami League was barred from contesting.
This also comes at a time when some leaders of the Awami League, currently in self-exile in India or Europe, are eyeing the possibility of returning home as part of efforts to revive the party.
The ICT in Dhaka, is a domestic war crimes court. It sentenced Hasina to death on November 17 last year after convicting her of crimes against humanity during the crackdown on the student-led protests in 2024. The tribunal also gave her a separate sentence of imprisonment until death after convicting her of facilitating and failing to prevent crimes against civilians by law enforcement agencies and Awami League cadres.
Hasina’s letter, dated March 30, included five demands. Primary among these is that the verdict and sentence against her be “immediately set aside as legally void”, and that no steps be taken to execute the death sentence, which would “constitute summary execution in violation of international law”.
Any further proceedings against Hasina should be conducted in full compliance with international fair trial standards, including proper notification, disclosure of all allegations and evidence, the opportunity for her to participate in her defence with legal representation of her choosing, and a “trial before an independent and impartial tribunal”, the notice further stated.
Immediate steps should also be taken to ensure the safety and security of lawyers and others associated with the Awami League “who face intimidation and violence”, and the tribunal and the government should take remedial action to ensure compliance with Bangladesh’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other international human rights instruments, the letter stated.
It listed several reasons for opposing Hasina’s conviction and the death sentence, including “unlawful conduct of proceedings” in the ICT.
Hasina was “prosecuted and sentenced in absentia for capital offences in proceedings that are fundamentally incompatible with basic international standards for fairness and due process”, the letter said.
It also said that the reconstitution of the tribunal’s bench with “judges lacking experience and having overt political affiliations to opposition parties” amounted to a “lack of judicial independence”. The letter also contended that there was “prosecutorial bias” as the chief prosecutor was a person with “clear political opposition ties” who actively campaigned for banning the Awami League while conducting proceedings.
It has also been argued that the ICT lacked jurisdiction to try Hasina for the alleged offences, as it was set up to prosecute genocide, war crimes and other crimes under international law committed during the liberation war of 1971.
Bangladesh has sought Hasina’s extradition on a number of occasions, but India has not responded.
