UN Urgent Appeal Flags Fair Trial Concerns in Sheikh Hasina’s Tribunal Case
An urgent appeal has been submitted to the United Nations (UN) raising significant concerns about fair-trial and due-process rights in the case of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The law-firm Doughty Street Chambers in London is acting on her behalf and has written to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, as well as the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Sheikh Hasina, who served as Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is being prosecuted in absentia, with multiple procedural concerns highlighted in the appeal. These include the absence of an independent and impartial tribunal, lack of formal notification of charges, trials carried out without her presence or meaningful representation, and a backdrop of intense political pressure following the demonstrations that erupted in Bangladesh in July-August 2024.
The appeal argues that, should a death sentence be imposed in such conditions, it would amount to an execution following an unfair trial—contravening the right to life under international law. It further raises that the interim government overseeing the trial lacks democratic mandate and that only figures from Sheikh Hasina’s former government are being prosecuted, pointing to a selective process and political motives.
The urgency of the appeal underlines the risk of grave violations of fair-trial rights and due-process guarantees protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It demands that the tribunal’s proceedings meet the standards of impartiality, transparency, and legal safeguards required under international human rights law.
