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Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is jailed for six months for contempt of court in one of cases facing the fugitive following last year's regime change.
A three-member bench of the The International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) in Dhaka, headed by its Chairman Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, Wednesday delivered the verdict after holding hearings on the charge brought against two, including Hasina.
The other sentenced by the tribunal in the same case is Shakil Akand Bulbul, the former chief of Gaibandha's Gobindaganj Upazila unit of the banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), her party's student wing.
He is sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam said the sentence will take effect only once the convicts surrender before the court or are arrested by law-enforcers.
This is the first conviction and sentence handed down to Sheikh Hasina since she was unseated on August 5 last year in a student-mass uprising.
The prosecution of the ICT initiated the complaint on April 30 this year annexing an audio clip that had gone viral on social media. In the audio clip, Hasina is allegedly heard telling Shakil Akanda Bulbul, "There are 227 cases filed against me, so I have got a licence to kill 227 people."
During the hearing, Chief Prosecutor Tajul described the conversation as an attempt to intimidate victims and witnesses in the ongoing trials related to crimes against humanity during the July mass uprising.
He said, "Such remarks, if unaddressed, could hinder legal proceedings."
Tajul also informed the tribunal that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had conducted a forensic analysis confirming the voice in the audio was of Hasina.
Admitting the complaint, the ICT, that day, ordered the accused to file their response by May 15. After they had failed to comply, the tribunal ordered the accused to appear before it on May 25. As they did not comply with this second directive either, the tribunal instructed its registrar to publish a public notice in two national newspapers to appear before it.
The following day, public notice was published in two newspapers asking the two to appear before the tribunal by June 3. However, the accused didn't appear that day, too. Later, the tribunal fixed June 19 for detailed hearing.
On June 19, the tribunal appointed a state defence lawyer to represent Hasina and the banned BCL leader in the case. It also appointed senior lawyer AY Masihuzzaman as an amicus curiae to give expert opinion on the complaint filed against the accused.
On June 25, the tribunal granted one-week time to the amicus curiae for his preparation and fixed July 2 for detailed hearing. Upon hearing on the charge, the tribunal convicted the two in absentia.
State defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain said he was not happy with the verdict, and would take "next step after getting the full text of the verdict".
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