Bangladesh stands at a point in history where streams of blood dry up only to stain and smudge the pages of law and justice. Sheikh Hasina may have been a deeply flawed prime minister and an autocratic dynast, but her trial and verdict at the self-styled International Crimes Tribunal-Bangladesh (ICT-B) was not just a farce. It was a revenge crime against democracy.

Jurisprudence was thrown to the shredder, almost every rule bent, every Constitutional safeguard brazenly breached, and justice put on the death row in Bangladesh.

Let us start with the fundamentals.

ICT-B was premised on the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973. The 1973 Act and changes to it in 2008 were specifically meant to deal with the genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.

Amendments to ICT made after August 5, 2024, were done through an ordinance. This is invalid ab initio as the duly appointed executive was not around and Parliament had not approved the changes. The Bangladesh President is not empowered to issue the ordinance (Article 93) as Parliament was not lawfully dissolved.

Then comes the unconstitutional appointment of judges.

On August 10, 2024, the Chief Justice and five other judges of the Appellate Division of Supreme Court were physically forced to resign by an “ultimatum" served by a student mob. The three current ICT-B judges were appointed by violating the Constitution. Chairman of ICT Golam Mortuza Majumder, a retired district court judge, was appointed as a high court judge only six days before it was declared that the ICT will examine........

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