This is a heartfelt appeal to the conscience of the International Community and Court of Justice to stand by the oppressed people of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

We urgently call for: 

1) Repatriation of stolen monies

2) Repatriate seized assets

3) Forgiveness of billions of dollars in loans, and

4) An appeal to International Courts of Justice, such as the ICJ, to bring Sheikh Hasina, her family members, and the cronies of her brutal regime to justice. These steps are vital for rebuilding democracy, economic stability, peace, and justice in Bangladesh after three decades of political oppression, particularly the last 15 years under Sheikh Hasina’s fascist rule."

But before that —

Why has Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled?

The 76-year-old has suddenly fled the country after weeks of student-led protests that were met with violence (July 1 - August 5, 2024). After 15 years in power, Bangladesh’s prime minister was forced to resign and flee the country abruptly for India. Sheikh Hasina’s departure came after weeks of student-led protests, and were met with deadly force, which saw more than 10,000 arrested, a over 600  dead and many fold of this number maimed, has been greeted with jubilation on the streets of the capital, Dhaka.

Her rule has also been characterized by growing levels of authoritarianism. Extra-Judicial killings have been widespread and journalists have said they feared doing the most basic reporting in case it was deemed to reflect badly on the government. Elections under Hasina have had claims of election irregularity. In the most recent case, on January 7, 2024, boycotted by the opposition and was internally (internationally) condemned. The previous 3 terms she served between 2009, 2014 and 2019 were also sham elections, where citizenry couldn’t vote, or vote freely. Although, she claimed to be the upholder of Democracy in Bangladesh, in reality, the form of ‘cracy’ she championed in her reign most liberally be defined as “DEMOCRAZY”.

In view of and as a result of her autocratic governance, rampant corruption and Money Laundering by her cronies, siphoning of the loots to safe havens overseas to the tune of 10’s of Billions over the last 15 years put the Economy in life support, with Bangladesh Bank Reserve hovering around US $16.77 Billion, as a result. It barely can now service its internal and international debt commitment .

Beside the atrocities committed by Sk. Hasina’s regime, the rampant looting of Banks, national resources and Foreign Reserves by her Family Members and cronies have made a huge hole in Bangladesh’s capability to pay for import of raw materials for industrial production, food and debt servicing.

What next?

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Noble Laureate, has been sworn in as head of a new caretaker government in Bangladesh  and we urge the International community, such as USA Senate and Congress, European Union, Government of G8 countries, IMF, Swiss Banks, United Nation bodies, etc. to help the newly installed Government in the following areas:

1) Repatriation of Stolen Money - identify and bring into account the Money taken out of the country by Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, daughter Sayma Wazed, her wider Family members (embezzled $5 billion from overpriced $12.65 billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant alone through Malaysian Banks), Ministers, Advisors, Members of Parliament, her party Awami League, the previous regimes of BNP and Jatio Party, high ranking officials, and all the upper and lower echelon of all successive  Governments, Military and Police forces, Members of Judiciary, etc. since the inception of Bangladesh in 1971;

According to a report by Bonik Barta (local news paper), nearly US $150 billion was syphoned out of the country. This report is based on the findings of US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI). Most of the stolen funds apparently came from big projects, loans taken from banks mostly by politically influential people, like Sajeeb Wazed Joy (Sheikh Hasina’s son), Tulip Siddiq, Mr. Salman F. Rahman, and others;

2) Repatriate seized assets - of previous government officials from their current domiciles in US, Canada, UK and EU countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and Middle Eastern countries such as Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. (as outlined in item 1) to the care of the current Bangladesh Government;

3) Forgive Loans of Billions of $ - Bangladesh debt burden gets heavier as the country runs low on capacity to repay. The government owes $19.53 billion to the World Bank, $14.11 billion to the Asian Development Bank, $11 billion to Japan, $5.9 billion to Russia, $5.34 to China, and $1.5 billion to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, $1.3 billion to India and others. 

Bangladesh External Debt reached $99.3 USD bn in March 2024, public sector accounting for 79.2% of the debt and the private sector accounting for 20.8%, that was taken out by her regime in the name of Infrastructure development from institutions such as IMF, and countries like China, USA, EU and other sources, which eventually was siphoned off to offshore countries and banks by the fascist and dictatorial Govt. of Sheikh Hasina;

4)  Appeal to International Court of Justice such as ICJ - to bring Hasina, her family members and cronies of her brutal regime to justice, to answer for their crime against Humanity, prejudicial killings, and Genocide of her own citizenry in the most merciless of circumstances in the format as was established in Nuremberg, post Second World War for Nazi crime committed in Germany, Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

We thank you for your kind compassion and empathy towards the long suffering citizens of Bangladesh to bring about justice, peace and economic stability in this region.

Note: Please sign the petition to show your support and approval to appeal to the International Community to help rebuild and establish peace and justice in Bangladesh, and bring Sheikh Hasina to International Court of Justice for her political vengeance over the last 30 years.  

Sources: The Gaurdian; The Daily Star; Bonik Barta; Global Financial Integrity (GFI); The Daily Star; CEIC Data; Global Defense Corp; South China Morning Post; The New York Times; Al Jazeera; AP News; Dhaka Tribune; AFP Getty Images.