Dhaka, Dec 5 Bangladesh’s Awami League party on Friday condemned the arrest warrant issued by the country’s “so-called” International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed, saying the people of the nation have already labelled the tribunal a “kangaroo court.”
The remarks came after the ICT on Thursday reportedly issued an arrest warrant against Sajeeb Wazed, former Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, taking cognisance of the formal charges brought against him in a case linked to alleged crimes against humanity during last year's July-August demonstrations that followed an internet shutdown.
The party stated that the allegations behind the warrant, including shutting down the internet and committing genocide during the July-August 2024 period, are “baseless, absurd, and politically motivated.”
According to the Awami League, the ICT was established in 1973 to try war criminals involved in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and its jurisdiction is strictly limited to the trial of war crimes.
Slamming the interim government's Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, the party said, “Yunus — the representative of illegal usurpers, killers, fascists, and anti-liberation forces — is using this Tribunal as a tool to carry out his political vendetta.”
“In his attempt to take revenge for the defeat of 1971 and to restore the ideology of Pakistan while destroying the spirit of the Liberation War, the legacy of Bangabandhu, and the idea of Bangladesh, he is weaponising this illegal Tribunal. This is now clear as daylight to the people of Bangladesh,” it added.
The Awami League stressed that an arrest warrant can only be issued when allegations are backed by credible grounds and preliminary evidence. It added that during the militant uprising of July–August 2024, Sajeeb Wazed was abroad — “a well-known and proven fact”.
“He remains outside the country, and since the state apparatus is under the control of militants and terrorists, he has no realistic opportunity to appear before the court. The case is entirely politically motivated, and issuing an arrest warrant is a complete violation of human rights,” the party emphasised.
The Awami League further alleged that the “killer-fascist and public enemy” Yunus, through a calculated conspiracy and meticulous design, has brought “false, illogical, and absurd” allegations against Sajeeb Wazed as part of a blueprint to render Bangladesh and the Awami League leaderless.
The party asserted that together with the people, it will continue against any “conspiracy targeting Bangladesh’s sovereignty, the spirit of the Liberation War, and democracy”.
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