Ex-minister Mohibul Hasan denounces Hasina's verdict as 'staged drama' | WION Exclusive

The death sentence handed down Monday to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has Awami League stalwarts vowing peaceful defiance against what they call a sham tribunal.Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, the country's former education minister, speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal, lambasted the ruling as a "staged drama," insisting "the whole process is a farce."

Chowdhury said "we have a lot of support from the people" and accused Yunus of courting chaos, criticising the regime for "wanting the country to be thrown into chaos." Ties to Pakistan drew Chowdhury's sharpest ire. "Yunus govt wants to make Bangladesh a vassal state of ISI," he charged, evoking the spy agency's shadowy influence.

Sidhant Sibal: Your take on the Hasina verdict?

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: This was an expected verdict. It was pre-written. There was a staged drama in the name of a trial. The whole process was illegal. From the formation of the tribunal to the end of the trial, and today's verdict. We have been told that the court's chairman, the tribunal's chairman, did not even go to the court for the last month. We know that this tribunal did not have any mandate to try the offences which it claimed to have tried. This tribunal was set up to try the incidence of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war of independence. These people, the interim regime of Yunus, want to equate the genocides of 71 with what has happened in 2024 to whitewash what the Pakistan army and their collaborators had done. They want to replace history, and therefore they have passed a completely illegal ordinance to amend the law for which they had no legal authority to do. They have appointed their loyal judges there. The prosecutor was, in fact, in the past, a defender of the actual war criminals of 71. He has been appointed as the state prosecutor. And on behalf of the state, a Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer was appointed to represent our leader, Sheikh Hasina. So the whole process is a farce. It is to take revenge for the 1971 trial.

Sidhant Sibal: What next? Will you go for an appeal in this case, and how do you see the verdict impacting the political future for your party and, of course, for the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina?

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: An illegal court passing an illegal verdict has no political consequence. Right now, their objective is to bar us from the next election. Our objective is to oust this illegal government. We do not recognise the authority of this court. We do not recognise this government, and we do not want to participate in any election under these people. So we will continue, as we were continuing, demanding justice, demanding reconciliation, and demanding that people are given a say in what should happen for Bangladesh in the future. So we will be protesting like we were protesting. We have a significant portion of our population favouring us, supporting us, and responding to our protest calls.

Sidhant Sibal:You said that you're going to hold protests. How do you plan to do so? Your party has been banned.

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: They have banned our activities as if we were a terrorist organisation. Whilst they were hosting terror organisations from Pakistan in Bangladesh, organisations like Lashkar, Jaish had been invited into Bangladesh to hold meetings with high officials. Pakistan army's intelligence officials have been invited. The party that brought the country's freedom has been banned from taking part in any activity. So even if we hold a peaceful rally, we are being arrested. So we know how to do what we need to do. It is a political strategy, and of course, I can't disclose. We will consult with our senior leaders. Awami League has protested and fought repressive dictatorial regimes in the past.

Sidhant Sibal: You said, Jaish, Lashkarterrorists, have been invited to Bangladesh. On this claim, for which you have provided no evidence to support?

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: Jaish has itself said this in public, in Pakistani media, that their mercenaries went to Bangladesh and took part in the riot and then claimed credit for the ouster of our government. Maulana Faazl-ur-Rehman, one of the hard-line Islamist leaders from Pakistan, is now in Bangladesh. And Jaish-e-Mohammed had publicly declared that they are now going to open branches in Bangladesh. It's not what we are saying. It's all in the media. They are the ones who are saying that they will start operating from Bangladesh. So it's not something that we are concocting. So this is what these people want, to turn Bangladesh into a vessel state of ISI, like it used to be between 2001 and 2006.

Sidhant Sibal: You arebanned; you cannot stand in the elections. What do you plan to do? Essentially, you look like a force that is not present on the ground. It looks like that.

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: We've already shown that despite us not being in public, we were able to shut down the whole country on the13th. Thepeople are with us. We are all out there. We are all protesting. We are all doing what we have to do, but the media is forbidden from reporting any of our protests. So just because we are absent from Bangladeshi media doesn't mean that we are not out on the street. We have so far been holding peaceful, organised protests where we were requesting people not to take part in their daily activities, just like a general strike.

Sidhant Sibal: The interim government in Bangladesh, the Yunu-led government, in a statement, restated the call for the extradition of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Br Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury: No country where there is any semblance of rule of law will extradite Sheikh Hasina, not just SheikhHasina, but also her colleagues. Many of our political colleagues or activists are in different countries, and they're asking India for her extradition, but they have to prove that she was given a fair trial, and that is the standard of any kind of extradition. They have to prove that she was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that they have failed todo so, andthey are simply finger-pointing at India. Our colleagues have taken asylum and refuge in other countries too, Australia, France, the UK, USA. Of course, they don't have the guts to saythat tothese countries, because everyone recognises what is happening in Bangladesh and what has happened since the fifth of August. So I don't see any sane government ever responding to any extradition request by this illegal regime of Yunus.