Hasina was imprisoned under my supervision during Ershad regime: Azmi tells tribunal

Retired brigadier general Abdullahil Aman Azmi has testified that Sheikh Hasina was detained under his supervision during the military regime of Hussain Muhammad Ershad.

He made the statement on Monday during cross-examination by the defense in a case of crimes against humanity over allegations of enforced disappearance and torture at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC), bdnews24.com reports.

Azmi, son of former Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Ghulam Azam, was questioned by defence lawyer Azizur Rahman Dulu before a two-member bench of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder.

At one stage of the cross-examination, lawyer Dulu asked whether Azmi had ever met the ousted prime minister Hasina.

In response, Azmi said the had met her several times in 1983.

He recalled living with his company in a house on Hare Road during Ershad’s military rule while on martial law duty.

Azmi noted that Hasina, Matia Chowdhury, and Sahara Khatun were held in that house for several days under his direct oversight.

On Feb 15, 1983, Hasina was arrested along with 31 Awami League leaders and activists for organising protests against the military government.

The Awami League chief was released after 15 days of detention.

After Hasina’s leadership led the Awami League to victory in the 2008 election, the tribunal was established to prosecute war crimes committed in 1971.

In 2013, the tribunal sentenced Ghulam Azam, the wartime Jamaat leader, to 90 years in prison for crimes against humanity. He died in prison in 2014.

Meanwhile, shortly after the Awami League came to power, Azmi was dismissed from the Army on Jun 23, 2009.

He challenged the legality of that dismissal in the High Court but did not receive a favourable verdict.

Following the fall of the Awami League government in the 2024 July Uprising, the interim government annulled that dismissal order.

Instead, he was retroactively given “premature (compulsory) retirement” effective from Jun 24, 2009, allowing him to receive all financial and other benefits as a retired brigadier.

During the Awami League’s second term in power, on Aug 22, 2016, Azmi was allegedly picked up from his home, according to his family.

He returned home two days after the fall of the Hasina government on Aug 5, 2024.

Later, at a press conference at the National Press Club on Sept 3, Azmi claimed that he had been subjected to enforced disappearance and detained in a secret facility known as “Ayna Ghor”.

He said he was released after the Uprising. During his detention, he faced torture and did not see sunlight for eight years.

After the fall of the Awami League government, the interim government restructured the International Crimes Tribunal to try crimes against humanity related to suppressing the mass uprising in 2024.

In the first verdict announced by the ICT, Hasina and her home minister Asaduzzaman Khan were sentenced to death.

Subsequently, two cases of crimes against humanity were filed over enforced disappearances and torture of opposition figures during the Awami League rule.