The Office of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal will write to the Home Ministry to seize half of the assets owned by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, who have been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. The letter will be sent today, Tuesday.
Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam disclosed the information to journalists at a briefing at his office at the International Crimes Tribunal today.
The chief prosecutor said the tribunal had ordered the seizure of assets belonging to Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan. Half of their total assets will be identified and seized.
The government will later sell these assets through auction or other legal procedures. The proceeds will be distributed through the July Foundation or another statutory body among the families of those killed in the mass uprising.
The chief prosecutor further said that steps would be taken to seize, in phases, the assets of those against whom the tribunal had issued seizure orders and whose deadlines for filing appeals had expired. Letters would be sent to the relevant authorities to this end.
On 17 November last year, International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death in a case involving crimes against humanity committed during the July mass uprising.
In the same verdict, the tribunal ordered the seizure of their assets. As part of implementing that order, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office is now preparing to write to the Home Ministry.