Bangladesh's deposed PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to six months in contempt case

Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina was on Wednesday sentenced to six months in prison in a contempt of court case by the International Crimes Tribunal, while it now tries her on a major charge of committing crimes against humanity in absentia.

A three-member panel of the tribunal-1 (ICT), led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, simultaneously sentenced to two months a fugitive leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, Shakil Akanda Bulbul, in the same case.

It marks the first time that 77-year-old Hasina has been sentenced in any case since she left office in August last year.

"According to the verdict, the sentence will come into effect from the day of her arrest or surrender before the court,” chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told reporters after the verdict was handed down.

A state-appointed lawyer is defending Hasina, now staying in India, in the tribunal which earlier declared her a “fugitive” while her trial was opened on Monday initially over the murder of student protester Abu Sayeed.

Sayeed’s killing in northwestern Rangpur University during a demonstration escalated a nationwide violent protest that ultimately ousted her nearly 16-year-long regime on August 5 last year, when she secretly left the country on a military aircraft.

Three days later Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, 85, flew from Paris to take charge of an interim government as the nominee of the protesters who were waging the movement under a platform called Students against Discrimination (SAD).

Yunus, the founder of the landmark Grameen Bank, was on a protracted row with the past regime for obscure reasons while a Bangladeshi court sentenced him to six months in jail for violating the Bangladesh labour laws in January last year.

However, he did not serve the sentence as an appeal process was underway on his behalf.

Wednesday’s verdict came over her alleged leaked comments over phone after her ouster which prosecutors said threatened witnesses in ongoing hearings in ICT-BD that originally was formed to try hardened collaborators of Pakistani troops during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

In the audio clip, the ousted premier is allegedly heard telling local party leader and former chairman of a northwestern sub-district, Bulbul "I have had 227 cases filed against me, so I have received a licence to kill 227 people".

The tribunal considered the statement contemptuous and a direct attempt to undermine the court and handed down the sentence.

"The prosecution team believes her comment created an aura of fear among those who filed the cases and among the witnesses," the chief prosecutor later told the media.

Lawyers, however, said the main charge of commission of crimes against humanity could expose Hasina and several leaders and officials of the ousted regime to the gallows.

Hasina’s state-appointed lawyer in the tribunal on Tuesday denied accusations that she committed crimes against humanity.

According to a UN rights office report, up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year as Hasina's government ordered a security crackdown on protesters.

Most leaders of the Awami League and ministers and several officials of the past regime were arrested or were on the run at home and abroad as the interim government initiated their trial for brutal actions to tame the uprising last year.