International Crimes Tribunal Issues Arrest Warrants for Ex-Bangladeshi PM Hasina and 29 Others on Enforced Disappearance Charges

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) today issued arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 29 others on charges of crimes against humanity, specifically citing alleged enforced disappearances and torture carried out during her administration.

The three member ICT bench, led by Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, took cognizance of charges filed in two separate cases. The cases accuse the 78 year old former leader and her aides of overseeing the detention, torture, and disappearance of political opponents at secret facilities operated by elite security agencies, notably the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and the Task Force Interrogation (TFI) unit of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

The tribunal issued the arrest warrants for Hasina and the 29 co-accused, who include her former security and defense advisor Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former senior military and security officials, and ex-ministers, and set October 22, 2025, as the date for them to be produced before the court. The prosecution submitted two charge sheets today, each containing five counts of crimes against humanity.

Chief Prosecutor at the ICT, Md Tajul Islam, told reporters that the judicial process would hold accountable "Those who never cared about the trust people had bestowed upon them...and yet stood against the state, the constitution, and the law." The official state run news agency, BSS, reported on the issuance of the warrants and the subsequent court date.

This is not the first arrest warrant issued for the ousted premier, who fled to India in August 2024 following a massive student led uprising that toppled her nearly 16 year rule. She also faces a previous warrant issued on October 17, 2024, on charges of crimes against humanity related to the deaths of protesters during the July-August 2024 mass uprising. Additionally, the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge issued a new arrest warrant against her and others on April 10, 2025, in a separate graft case.

The International Crimes Tribunal, originally established to try collaborators of the 1971 Liberation War, has become the key legal platform for prosecuting senior figures of Hasina's former government and her now banned Awami League party. The current interim government has vowed to prosecute all those responsible for abuses during the previous regime. The recent inquiry commission on disappearances, cited by prosecutors, has verified more than 250 cases of disappearances during Hasina’s 15 years in power, with nearly 1,700 complaints received.

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