Virginia (US): Sajeeb Wazed, son of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina has accused the US administration under Joe Biden of spending “millions of dollars on regime change” in his country.
Wazed, who is based in the US, also thanked India for saving his mother’s life and said that Bangladesh has no right to seek Hasina’s extradition after an “unconstitutional” court in that country sentenced her to death.
“…India has always been a good friend. In the crisis, India has essentially saved my mother’s life. If she hadn’t left Bangladesh, the militants had planned on killing her. So, I am eternally grateful to Prime Minister Modi’s government for saving my mother’s life…,” he told ANI.
Wazed claimed that Hasina’s extradition is being sought by an “unelected, unconstitutional and illegal” government in Dhaka that did not follow the judicial process while sentencing her to death.
“For an extradition to happen, the judicial process has to be followed. In Bangladesh, there is a government that’s unelected, unconstitutional and illegal. In order to convict my mother, they amended laws to fast-track her trial… So these laws were amended illegally. My mother was not allowed to hire her defence attorneys. Her attorneys weren’t even allowed into the courts…,” he said.
The trial was compromised by political interference, he added.
“17 judges were terminated at the court before the
trial, new judges appointed, some of whom had absolutely no experience on the bench and were politically connected. So, there was no due process whatsoever… For extradition to happen, there has to be due process…,” Wazed said.
On the present US government’s attitude to the ongoing situation in Bangladesh, Wazed said that “US attitude has definitely changed” under president Donald Trump.
“President Trump himself announced at a press conference earlier this year that the previous administration, through USAID, spent millions of dollars on regime change in Bangladesh,” he said.
On being asked if the then Hasina government received any threats from the US government, he said: “… No, we’ve not received any threats whatsoever. The only slight issue was that the US was the only country that issued a negative statement on our 2024 elections, which our opposition boycotted. Other than that, the elections were regarded as peaceful by everyone. So there was no direct pressure… Now, there is a completely new government in the US. The situation is completely different…”
He noted that the US attitude has “definitely changed”, as President Trump is more concerned about the “threat of terrorism and the rise of Islamism in Bangladesh than the previous administration.”
Protests that rocked Bangladesh in June-July 2024 eventually led to Hasina’s ouster on August 5 that year.
On November 17, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal convicted the 78-year-old former prime minister of “crimes against humanity” linked to the July-August 2024 uprising. The tribunal found Hasina and two senior officials guilty of ordering or enabling atrocities during the protests.
Incidentally, the Tribunal was set up to try and punish those who collaborated with the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.