No appeal has been filed on behalf of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina against her death sentence in a crimes against humanity case, the chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal said.
Prosecutors will write to the Home Ministry on Tuesday seeking enforcement of orders to seize her movable and immovable assets.
The letter will request that confiscated property be sold and the proceeds distributed to families of people killed in the July uprising, Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam told reporters.
Islam said an appeal filed by one defendant would not cover another and that none had been filed for Hasina.
He said seizure orders covered Hasina, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader and others. A review identified orders concerning about 11 to 12 people.
Islam cited Section 21 of the International Crimes Tribunal Act on appeals after the deadline.
Sections 21(1) and 21(2) give both the government and defendants 30 days to appeal. Section 21(3) says an appeal cannot be filed after that period, he said.
Because the statute is a special law, prosecutors believe there is no scope to excuse a delay under the Limitation Act, Islam said. Once 30 days pass, there is no legal barrier to enforcing other parts of a judgment.
He said prosecutors would raise the missed deadline in an appeal currently pending before the Appellate Division.
Fugitives covered by seizure orders will soon have their property taken into government custody, Islam said.
Prosecutors do not yet know the value of the assets. The amount will be determined after identification and valuation.
The tribunal ordered the sale of 50 percent of defendants’ property, with the proceeds to be distributed among families of July uprising victims, Islam said.
The Home Ministry is responsible for enforcing tribunal judgments and orders.
Islam said seizures and sales could proceed under the Public Demands Recovery Act or Section 386 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, though separate rules would be preferable.
Asked why earlier judgments in the cases against Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal did not explicitly specify 50 percent, Islam said the Rome Statute allows confiscation of up to 75 percent of property.
He said prosecutors would advise the Home Ministry to proceed under existing law.
The tribunal sentenced Hasina and Kamal to death on November 17 last year for crimes against humanity during efforts to suppress the July 2024 uprising.
The judgment said their assets in Bangladesh would be confiscated in favor of the state.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report