Convicted former PM Hasina takes trial, Awami League ban to global parliamentarians’ rights body

Convicted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has filed a complaint with the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians in Geneva, challenging her trial and death sentence and raising allegations of wider rights violations against members of the Bangladesh Awami League.

The complaint was submitted on Hasina’s behalf by British barrister Steven Powles KC, who is representing the ousted prime minister.

It asks the committee to initiate an independent review of what it describes as the persecution of Awami League members and people associated with the party.

It also calls for the Awami League ban to be lifted.

Hasina was convicted by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal and sentenced to death on November 17, 2025.

The complaint alleges that the proceedings were politically motivated and “manifestly unfair,” saying Hasina was tried in absentia and was unable to be represented by counsel of her choosing.

It further alleges that lawyers associated with the Awami League faced intimidation and that Hasina could not communicate with the lawyer eventually appointed to represent her.

The claims made in the complaint have not yet been adjudicated by the IPU committee.

The complaint also challenges the ban imposed on the Awami League by Bangladesh’s erstwhile interim administration in May 2025.

The ban prevented the party from contesting the February 2026 general election, which was won by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The complaint says the BNP-led government subsequently maintained the restriction.

It argues that excluding the Awami League violated rights protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, citing provisions covering freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and political participation.

The complaint further alleges continuing attacks against Awami League members and associates, as well as widespread arrests of former party lawmakers.

It claims more than 100 former MPs have remained in custody for more than two years without trial and raises concerns about death sentences handed down in cases that have proceeded to trial.

The IPU has already been examining allegations involving detained former Bangladeshi parliamentarians. In an April 2026 decision concerning six former Awami League MPs, the IPU recorded allegations including arbitrary arrest and detention, intimidation, inhumane detention conditions and lack of due process.

The IPU says its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians examines alleged human rights violations involving serving MPs and, under certain circumstances, former parliamentarians where the alleged violations are directly connected to events during their parliamentary mandates.

Its latest Bangladesh profile says seven cases involving MPs are currently being handled by the committee.

Powles, an international criminal law specialist at Matrix Chambers, is currently representing Hasina, according to his chambers.

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