The indictment against Inu was filed on Sept 25; opening prosecution statements are set for Nov 23, the tribunal says
The International Crimes Tribunal has ordered the start of trial proceedings against Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President and former minister Hasanul Haq Inu on charges of crimes against humanity over the killing of seven people in Kushtia during the July uprising.
A three-judge tribunal-2 bench led by Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury issued the order on Sunday. The court fixed Nov 23 for the prosecution’s opening submission.
Inu faces eight counts of crimes against humanity charges, including the killing of seven people in Kushtia during the upheaval. He was arrested on Aug 26, 2024 in Uttara and has since been held for questioning in different cases.
On the day the charges were filed, counsel Mizanul Islam told the court that Inu, a partner in the 14-party alliance and JaSaD’s supremo, “regularly communicated with Sheikh Hasina, advising on different matters, and from his senior position purportedly issued instructions to local SPs and party cadre forces.”
Mizanul said phone intercepts implicating both Hasina and Inu had been submitted — first to tribunal-1 last Wednesday and then to tribunal-2 with expert opinion and transcripts.
He told the court Inu had given interviews to India’s Mirror Now portal and to News 24 and other electronic media.
“Orders to open fire, as soon as seen, have been included as formal charges,” Mizanul added.
The indictment alleges a range of offences, including conspiring and issuing directives to identify unarmed protestors via drones and helicopters; deploying umbrella squads to bomb and shoot; and informing the local Kushtia SP to carry out such actions.
Mizanul said intercepted conversations revealed plans to detain demonstrators and then portray them in news scrolls as prisoners who would later be released — a euphemism, he argued, for killing them.
“The plan was to play the terrorist card, label protesters as militants and claim they died in militant attacks,” he said. The conversations also described lifting curfew on Aug 5 to mobilise 2,000 people from each ward to Dhaka, and instructions to “break the backbone” of the movement and destroy the BNP.
Counsel Mizanul identified two leaders mentioned in talks — Jonayed Saki and Saiful Haq — discussing how to recruit them into the operation. He accused Inu of fully endorsing the type of repression described in the intercepted calls.
Citing phone conversation evidence, Mizanul said local witnesses and investigations indicate that local Awami League activists and police shot and killed six protesters at various locations — killings that bear the imprint of orders allegedly connected to Inu.
Of the eight counts, two are specific: one charge relates to a single murder by shooting to the head, and another relates to the killing of six people by gunfire.
The tribunal will now move towards the prosecution’s opening arguments on Nov 23.
