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New Delhi: A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced the former Dhaka police chief and two senior officials to death for crimes against humanity in a case to the killing of six protesters during the July 2024 mass movement that ousted then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) convicted former Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman, former Joint Commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty and former Additional Deputy Commissioner (Ramna Zone) Shah Alam Mohammad Akhtarul Islam in absentia.

The officers sentenced to death are absconding.
The Dhaka Tribune reported that all three accused are currently absconding and their whereabouts are unknown. The verdict comes just ahead of Bangladesh’s general elections scheduled for February 2025, the first since Hasina’s ouster in August 2024. The court also sentenced five other former police officers to varying degrees of imprisonment.

Five more officers sentenced:
Former Assistant Commissioner (Ramna Zone) Mohammad Imrul received six years in prison, former Shahbag Police Station Inspector (Operations) Emad Arshad Hossain received four years in prison, and constables Emad Sujan Mia, Emad Imaj Hossain Emon, and Emad Nasirul Islam received three years each. Arshad, Sujan, Imaj, and Nasirul are currently in custody.

The Sheikh Hasina refuge in India
case relates to an incident that occurred on August 5, 2024, in the Chankharpul area of ​​Dhaka, when Sheikh Hasina sought refuge in India to save her life. Following this, protesters occupied her official residence. In delivering the verdict on the protests against Sheikh Hasina, tribunal Chairman Justice Emad Golam Mortuza Mozumder stated that the evidence proved that police opened fire with lethal weapons, killing six people.