Bangladesh tribunal issues arrest warrant against Sheikh Hasina’s son

American citizen Sajeeb Wazed faces charges of committing crimes against humanity

A Bangladeshi tribunal on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for ousted leader Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed.

The International Crimes Tribunal accepted formal charges against Mr Wazed as well as former state minister for information technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak, former law minister Anisul Huq and former investment adviser Salman F Rahman, according to a report by The Daily Star.

The three co-accused are already in custody. The tribunal directed prison authorities to present them before it on 10 December.

Mr Wazed, who received American citizenship in May after many years of residence in the North American country, is accused of committing crimes against humanity during last year’s violent street demonstrations that toppled the Hasina government. He was an advisor to the prime minister at the time.

The warrant for Mr Wazed, 54, came closely on the heels of a ruling against his mother.

Last month, the court handed down the death penalty to Hasina, ruling the former leader had committed crimes against humanity by overseeing a violent suppression of the protests.

In a trial that lasted months, prosecutors accused Hasina of ordering the use of lethal force against protesters, resulting in up to 1,400 deaths, according to the UN.

The tribunal also sentenced her former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death, and a third suspect – a former police chief – to five years in prison after he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.

People sit next to a banner marking the 74th founding anniversary of the Awami League party with images of former leader Sheikh Hasina, her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and son Sajeeb Wazed in Dhaka (AFP via Getty)

That ruling concluded the first of four related criminal cases examining alleged abuses committed during the government’s response to the agitation last summer.

The unrest ultimately forced Hasina to leave after 16 years in power and escape to India on 5 August.

Three days later, Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus took over as the country’s interim leader.

Last week, Hasina also received 21 years in prison in three corruption cases linked to illegally taking government land for herself and her family.

The sentences were handed down in absentia.

Her children, Sajeeb Wazed and Saima Wazed, were also awarded five-year sentences in one of the cases.

Hasina rejected last month’s ruling against her, insisting the proceedings stemmed from a “rigged tribunal” created and run by what she called an “unelected government with no democratic mandate”.

In a statement released through her Awami League party, she added: “They are biased and politically motivated.”

This week, a Bangladesh court sentenced the UK Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in prison after finding her guilty of corruption involving a government land project.

Siddiq was found guilty of corruptly influencing Hasina, who is her aunt, to help her mother acquire a piece of land in the suburbs of the Bangladeshi capital.

Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in jail, while Hasina was sentenced to five years in prison.

Siddiq called the trial “flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end”.

Siddiq quit as the British anti-corruption minister in January after she was slapped with a number of cases in Bangladesh.