The interim government has recently sought to enhance the scope of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act, 1973 by proposing eight amendments to broaden its jurisdiction and punishments.
The ICT has the jurisdiction to punish those responsible for genocide, war crimes, violations of humanitarian rules, and crimes against humanity and peace.
If these amendments were passed into law, any political organization found to have committed, aided, abated, or facilitated any crimes against humanity would be subject to a ban of up to ten years on all activities.
The tribunal may overturn this ban if provided with “substantial reforms” by the banned organization.
The definition of crimes against humanity would also be altered to include enforced disappearance, gender-based violence, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy and enforced sterilization; and such crimes could be considered as “part of a widespread or systematic attack”.
Those liable for such crimes would be altered to include any “leader of an organization, association, entity, or organized group” who failed to prevent such crimes being committed after having knowledge of them.
The tribunal would also be allowed to make publicly available audio and visual recordings of hearings/trials, allow representatives of foreign governments and NGOs to attend hearings/trials, and consider new types of evidence such as those collected from computer memory, drone data, cell phone recordings, or any digital device.
Defendants would also be allowed foreign counsel to represent them, as long as they have 10 years of experience practicing international criminal law.
On Monday, Asif Nazrul, Adviser for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs, received feedback from a panel of experts on the proposed changes.
ICT Chief Prosecutor Advocate Tajul Islam said his goal was to ensure justice and he sought help from all in this regard.
Regarding the proposed political party ban, British journalist David Bergman said: “To me this looks like a sentence simply created to punish the Awami League. It may be popular with other political parties, and there may be a reason for that, but I think it would be a big mistake and would not be looked at very positively internationally.”
Regarding the ban of political parties, Law Adviser Asif Nazrul said that no political party has demanded a ban, and that the ban was considered due to demands from families of victims of the July uprising.
These proposed amendments come shortly after the first complaint of enforced disappearance filed against Sheikh Hasina at the ICT on Monday by a businessman allegedly abducted and tortured for ten days in 2018, by individuals identifying themselves as Detective Branch officers.
An investigation into enforced disappearances under the Awami League government has now been launched.
