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Dhaka:
Bangladesh has sought to pursue deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s trial in the International Criminal Court even as she faced a trial in a domestic tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity, office of the interim government chief Muhammad Yunus said here on Thursday.
“The Chief Adviser Yunus discussed the issue of Hasina’s trial with International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim A Khan who called on him at his official Jamuna residence,” an official of the chief adviser’s press wing said.
Hasina fled to India on August 5 following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system. Three days later, Yunus, a Nobel laureate, took over as the Chief Adviser of the interim government.
He said Yunus, during his meeting with Khan on Wednesday, told him that Bangladesh intends to pursue the charges against Hasina and her allies particularly on charges of carrying out “massacre” during the July-August mass uprising and enforced disappearances during the past 15 years of her rule.
Dozens of cases are now being processed at the Internal Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) against Hasina, her cabinet colleagues, several of them being in jail or on the run at home and abroad while Dhaka sought Interpol help for her repatriation from India.
Yunus, earlier, said his government would also seek her return from India to stand trial.
The ICC prosecutor, however, said the international court would like to extend cooperation to ICT-BD, which by now, has issued an arrest warrant for Hasina and several top-ranking members of her Awami League party.
According to the press wing, the duo during their discussion, also discussed the Rohingya crisis and humanitarian assistance for them, the Myanmar situation alongside the prosecution and accountability of atrocities during the July-August mass movement in Bangladesh.
Khan informed Yunus that his office had formally sought an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military government chief Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity regarding the treatment of Rohingyas.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
