Two British lawyers have submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations, raising concerns over fair trial rights and due process in the trial of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina before Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

Hasina is facing charges of crimes against humanity at the ICT, where prosecutors have sought the death penalty on five counts, including incitement, command responsibility, and joint criminal enterprise over the reported deaths of 1,400 people during the July–August 2024 crackdown on protests.

Following the July Uprising, Hasina, who served over 15 years as prime minister, fled to India on Aug 5 last year and remains there.

Steven Powles KC and Tatyana Eatwell of Doughty Street Chambers, London, acting on behalf of her, filed the appeal with the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions on Monday.

The appeal cites “serious concerns” over violations of Hasina’s right to a fair trial and proper legal procedure during her in absentia prosecution.

Last month, the party filed an application with the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, accusing the interim government of crimes against humanity, including killings and arbitrary arrests of its members.

Steven Powles KC, representing the Awami League, filed the UN appeal on Hasina’s behalf.

On Oct 28, he sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Council president, detailing allegations of “political suppression, enforced disappearances, cases against military officers, impunity for criminals, and attacks on journalists”.

In the latest appeal, Powles and Eatwell note that, notwithstanding alleged abuses by members of Hasina’s government and serious reprisals against her supporters, the ICT has chosen to prosecute only members of her former government.

They say the interim government has decided that those who made the “uprising successful will not face prosecution … for their acts between Jul 15 and Aug 8 [2024].”

The two lawyers said the trials before the ICT are being conducted in “an environment charged with political vengeance, under an unelected interim government with no democratic mandate”.

They outlined specific “violations” of Hasina’s rights to a fair trial, including:

• Hasina has not been tried by an “independent and impartial tribunal”, as required by Article 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”).

The political association of the ICT’s judges which tried Hasina’s case with political parties opposed to her Awami League raise serious questions of both actual and perceived bias.

Moreover, the chief prosecutor also suffers from the appearance of bias, himself having appeared at political rallies calling for the ban of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.

• Hasina has been tried in absentia for very serious crimes. The trial has proceeded in her absence notwithstanding an extant request for her extradition from India. She has received no formal notification of the charges against her.

Moreover, lawyers who have previously acted on behalf of or who are associated with the Awami League have been attacked and are unable to carry out their professional duties without intimidation.

As a result, Hasina is being represented by a state appointed lawyer with whom she has had no communication and given no instructions.

• Against the backdrop of such serious fair trial and due process violations, the imposition of any death sentence following such a manifestly unfair trial would effectively amount to summary execution and a clear violation to the right to life guaranteed by Article 6 of the ICCPR.