By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday asserted that he is against the death penalty imposed on Sheikh Hasina by a Bangladesh court, according to his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in New York.
Mr. Dujarric said “We stand against the use of the death penalty in all circumstances,” as he replied to a question at a daily briefing on the sentence imposed in absentia on the leader who is in exile in India.
He cited a statement by UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk and said that “we fully agree with” his opposition to death penalty.
Dujarric added, “I’d refer you to what Volker Türk’s office said, that the verdicts delivered today is an important moment for victims of the grave violations committed during the suppression of protests last year in Bangladesh”.
According to the OHCHR and media reports the death penalty was handed down by a local court comprised of solely of Bangladeshi judges that styled itself “the International Crimes Tribunal”, which convicted her of “crimes against humanity”.
The court was originally created to try Pakistanis and their Bangladeshi collaborators who carried out genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
It was revived by Muhammad Yunus, the unelected, interim leader ruling Bangladesh and his supporters to try Sheikh Hasina and others on charges related to the suppression of student protests last year that led to her fleeing country.
UN human rights office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement issued in Geneva, said the verdicts against Hasina and her Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal “is an important moment for victims of the grave violations committed during the suppression of protests last year”.
She acknowledged, “We were not privy to the conduct of this trial” and said such proceedings should “unquestionably meet international standards of due process and fair trial” when it is conducted in absentia with the possibility of death penalty.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.