"Yunus Can't Touch My Mother": Sheikh Hasina's Son On Death Verdict

Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed, said that Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus will not be able to kill his mother. 

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina, who is now in exile in India, to death in a case over alleged crimes against humanity on Monday. 

Wazed asserted, "Yunus cannot touch my mother, and he cannot do anything to her."

Speaking to IANS, he said that the situation in Bangladesh is "illegal and unconstitutional", and once there is a rule of law, the case will be unsustainable.

"They will not be able to kill her, but they will execute the verdict. First of all, they can't get her. And once there is a rule of law, this entire process will get thrown out. Everything here is so illegal and unconstitutional and violates every legal principle that, once there is rule of law, everything will get thrown out and it will not be sustainable," he said.

Responding to whether Yunus' Nobel Prize should be revoked in view of alleged human rights violations in Bangladesh, he said, "Well, Nobel committees never take back their prizes. But look at Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. She won the Nobel Prize as well. The Peace Prize is basically given by lobbying. But she led to Rohingyas getting killed, and now Yunus is turning Bangladesh into a failed state and an Islamist terrorist state."

He said that the Congress party would have done what BJP has done to protect Hasina too, as there is a "rule of law" in India and that people follow the Constitution and laws.

Denouncing the judgement on Hasina, he listed out the reasons why it was 'completely illegal'. 

"It's a mockery. First of all, there is a government that is unelected, unconstitutional, and illegal. Then, in order to fast-track the trial in the tribunals, they had to amend laws, which you can only amend with a Parliament. Currently, there is no Parliament. So the process itself was completely illegal. They terminated 17 judges on this tribunal and appointed a new judge who has no experience. He has publicly made a nasty comment about my mother. So he is clearly biased", he said.

He pointed out that the authorities in Bangladesh did not let Hasina appoint a lawyer and instead chose their own lawyers to defend her. 

"In the history of Bangladesh, such trials take years of hearings, but they completed this in 140 days. So, it's a complete mockery of justice. There has been no due process. This is a joke," he added", he noted.