DHAKA: Under the leadership of former hard-line Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a lawyer who was a top prosecutor in a court that executed Islamist leaders was detained by Bangladeshi police on Tuesday. The case is the most recent in a series of arrests of high-ranking officials during Hasina’s tenure. Hasina is also wanted on charges of crimes against humanity for the murder of hundreds of demonstrators during the uprising that overthrew her administration in August of last year.
In a case connected to the student-led rebellion, Tureen Afroz was taken into custody on Monday night on suspicion of attempted murder, according to Dhaka police deputy commissioner Muhidul Islam. Mohammed Jabbar, 21, filed the lawsuit against Afroz after he was shot in August of last year while security personnel attempted to put an end to protests.
Muhidul told AFP, “She has a number of co-accused in this case, but none are as well-known as she is.”
Afroz worked as a prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, which Hasina established in 2010 to look into crimes committed during the nation’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Over the next years, the ICT convicted a number of high-profile political opponents to death and came to be perceived as a tool used by Hasina to eradicate her opponents.
At least six Islamist leaders, including many members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, received hanging sentences, and Afroz was a key player in their cases. Except for Ghulam Azam, everyone was put to death. This is the first arrest on these accusations of a former ICT prosecutor. After mobs stormed Hasina’s palace, she escaped to her old ally, India, and refused Bangladesh’s requests for extradition so she could face charges at the same ICT court she established.
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