DHAKA: Former Dhaka police commissioner and two other ex-police officers were on Monday sentenced to death by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for "crimes against humanity" during the 2024 violent protests that led to then PM Sheikh Hasina's ouster. A case in which death penalty was handed down to Hasina and then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in Nov last year.
They are accused of their role in the crackdown on protesters under the directions of the then Hasina-led Awami League govt. The 2024 'July uprising' saw Hasina - who ICT had said was the "mastermind and principal architect" of the violent repression that killed hundreds of protesters - flee Bangladesh.
Former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Habibur Rahman, former DMP joint commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty and former additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Akhtarul Islam after their trial in absentia were given death penalty by a three-judge ICT panel led by Justice Mohammad Golam Mortuza Mozumder. "These three (convicts) had superior status over their subordinates and are liable for superior command responsibility. They are found guilty and hereby awarded a single sentence of death," the ICT judgment said.
ICT also sentenced former Dhaka assistant police commissioner Mohammad Imrul - tried in absentia - to six years in prison, former inspector Arshad Hossain to four years and former constables Sujon Hossain, Imaj Hossain and Nasirul Islam to three years in jail. ICT found them guilty of an incident in which six people were killed in police firing.
