Former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed has accused the country’s interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus of weaponising the judiciary and launching a “witch hunt” to persecute Awami League leaders after Dhaka sought his mother’s extradition from India.
India’s external affairs ministry confirmed on Monday that Yunus’s caretaker administration had formally asked for the extradition of Hasina, who has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh in August. The move comes at a time when relations between the two countries are at a new low.
“The judges and prosecutors appointed by unelected Yunus-led regime to conduct farcical trial process through International Crimes Tribunal makes it a political witch hunt that forsakes justice and marks another ongoing onslaught to persecute Awami League leadership,” Wazed, the US-based son of Hasina, said in a post on X after the extradition request was made by Dhaka.
“We reiterate our position that every single incident of human rights violation between July and August needs to be investigated in a free and fair manner but the Yunus-led regime weaponised the judiciary, and we express no confidence on the justice system,” he said in a lengthy post.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission said it had launched an investigation into allegations that Wazed, along with Hasina and her niece, UK treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, had allegedly embezzled $5 billion from an “overpriced $12.65 billion” nuclear power project being built in Bangladesh by Russia’s state-run nuclear agency.
{{/usCountry}}On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission said it had launched an investigation into allegations that Wazed, along with Hasina and her niece, UK treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, had allegedly embezzled $5 billion from an “overpriced $12.65 billion” nuclear power project being built in Bangladesh by Russia’s state-run nuclear agency.
{{/usCountry}}Wazed described Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal as a “kangaroo tribunal” and said the request for the extradition of Hasina came at a time when hundreds of Awami League leaders and activists were “extrajudicially killed” or were facing “outrageous murder charges”.
He alleged there was “illegal incarceration of thousands” by law enforcement and “violent attacks including looting, vandalism and arson going on with impunity everyday, fuelled by denial of the regime”.
Since Hasina stepped down in the face of countrywide protests led by student groups and sought refuge in India on August 5, dozens of criminal and other cases have been filed against her and leaders of the Awami League party, including at the International Crimes Tribunal.
Wazed alleged that the chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Tajul Islam, who he said was appointed by the caretaker administration “despite proven records of defending war criminals”, had spread “deliberate disinformation” against Hasina by claiming that Interpol had issued a “red notice” against her.
This, Wazed further alleged, was a “desperate bid to extradite her and hold [a] farcical trial” to serve the interest of Yunus. “But the very prosecutor later altered his statement following media exposure of the outright lie and now officially sent request to India for the extradition,” he said.
The extradition request is expected to exacerbate the strains between New Delhi and Dhaka. While the external affairs ministry did not elaborate on the extradition request, beyond confirming it, it is unlikely that the Indian government will hand over Hasina, who was seen as one of New Delhi’s steadfast partners in the neighbourhood.