Hasina’s trial process not right, says Farhad Mazhar

Columnist and thinker Farhad Mazhar says that although he believes former prime minister Sheikh Hasina needed to be tried, but holding the trial in the old tribunal was not the right decision.

Speaking to a news outlet on Sunday, he said a new tribunal would have ensured greater international acceptance, whereas the current process raises questions of retaliatory justice.

After the July uprising, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death and former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun to five years in prison for crimes against humanity.

Farhad said the death sentences will not be accepted internationally. He added that members of the then parliament should also face trial for enacting what he called retroactive law.

He said, ‘Capital punishment is not internationally acceptable… If you suspend one law to create another only to hang someone, that is murder.’ He added, ‘Then Parliament has played a role in killing, not lawmaking.’

According to him, flawed procedure weakens the chance of proving Hasina’s crimes. ‘It will be seen as revenge—something I do not want to hear,’ he said.

He argued the same tribunal should not have been used and a separate one was necessary.
‘That is why we wanted a Truth and Reconciliation Council… you would have identified the real offenders,’ he said.

He also objected to trying army officers in this tribunal. He said, ‘If you avoid military court trials, are you trying to save some people?’

He added that within the military chain of command, responsibility should fall on those issuing orders, not only those following them.