Hasina, five ex-DGFI chiefs indicted

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) in Dhaka has framed charges against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 12 retired senior army officers, including 5 former DGFI chiefs, in a case of crimes against humanity involving enforced disappearances and torture at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) during the Awami League regime.
A three-member bench of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by its Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, passed the order on Thursday after a hearing on the formal charges pressed against them.
Among the 13 accused, only three are in jail, and the remaining 10 are absconding.
The arrested accused are Maj Gen Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, former Director of the Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau (CTIB) at DGFI; Brig Gen Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui, former Director, CTIB, DGFI; and Brig Gen Ahmed Tanvir Mazhar Siddiqui, former Director, CTIB, DGFI.
The absconding list includes Sheikh Hasina, Tarique Siddique, Lt Gen (retd) Md Akbar Hossain, former DGFI DG, Maj Gen (retd) Md Saiful Abedin, former DGFI DG, Lt Gen (retd) Md Saiful Alam, former DGFI DG, Lt Gen (retd) Ahmed Tabrez Shams Chowdhury, former DGFI DG, Maj Gen (retd) Hamidul Haque, former DGFI DG, Maj Gen (retd) Md Towhid-ul-Islam, former Director of CTIB, DGFI, Maj Gen Kabir Ahmed, former Director, CTIB, DGFI, and Lt Col (retd) Mokhsurul Haque.
Earlier on October 8 this year, Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam submitted the formal charges against the accused over allegations of enforced disappearances and torture during the Awami League regime.
In the formal charges, the accused have been implicated on five counts related to enforced disappearances and torture at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC).
The tribunal held a charge-framing hearing on December 7, during which Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam delivered a harrowing account of how anti-government activists were taken to the JIC cell, forcibly disappeared, and subjected to torture.
He also shed light on the ordeal of 26 individuals who disappeared between October 22, 2015, and August 5, 2024. Following the hearing, the Chief Prosecutor requested that charges be formally framed against the 13 accused persons.
Earlier on November 23, the tribunal appointed state defense counsel for the absconding accused in the case.

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