‘No procedure for de novo trial in the country’: chief prosecutor rules out Sheikh Hasina retrial
Photo: Collected
There is no legal scope for retrying the case of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, International Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam has said.
He set out this position while answering journalists’ questions on the tribunal premises today, Sunday.
The chief prosecutor explained that retrying a case that has already been tried is called a de novo trial. Such trials once existed in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. India has abolished it, and Bangladesh and Pakistan have also abolished it. He questioned how a country that does not practise it itself can advise another country to hold such a trial. According to him, Bangladesh has no procedure for a de novo trial.
Aminul Islam said India has known everything since the trial of Sheikh Hasina’s case began, and she is staying there under its shelter and patronage. He also asked why, then, they did not advise this guest to go to Bangladesh to face trial or to go and appeal in due time. In the chief prosecutor’s words, after the trial period and the appeal period have passed, Bangladesh is now being advised to hold a retrial; they reject such an absurd statement.
On the question of appeal, he said the current government has not changed the appeal provisions; the law was enacted by the Awami League government itself. They ran the tribunal under this very law until 2024. What is not in the law cannot be granted even if the government wishes, he remarked.
Background
According to a bdnews24.com report of 23 November 2025, the tribunal’s verdict sentenced Sheikh Hasina and her then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death; both have been in India since 5 August, and the then interim government again wrote to the Indian government seeking their return.
bdnews24.com reported on 9 November that Sheikh Hasina has applied for a new passport and national identity card in order to return home; Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam sees the matter as ‘political stunt-making’.
Sources
Background sources: bdnews24.com, 23 November 2025; bdnews24.com, 9 November 2026
