Three judges at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal will begin hearing the case in absentia against former head of the country’s government Sheikh Hasina on August 3, The Guardian reports. Hasina is accused of crimes against humanity over her attempts to quell protests in the country in August 2024 that left at least 1,400 people dead.
Hasina will not be present in court: she has pleaded not guilty and refused to attend the trial. She has been provided with a government lawyer. The former prime minister is in India and numerous requests for her extradition have been ignored.
Hasina resigned and left the country amid protests in August 2024. She flew in a military helicopter with her younger sister to India, after which protesters stormed her residence. Hasina wanted to record a speech before the flight but she was no longer able to do so.
The protests began with students demanding the cancellation of work quotas for relatives of veterans of Bangladesh’s independence war, and then expanded to become anti-government, with protesters demanding the resignation of Hasina, who has been in power for more than 15 years. This was in response to the authorities’ violence against protesters during a previous wave of demonstrations in late July 2024, which ended with a court ruling to reduce quotas. Some 200 people were killed then.