‘The ugliest thing’: Bangladesh leader reacts to ‘House of Mirrors’ prison – and vows to put Sheikh Hasina on trial
The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, has told Sky News former prime minister Sheikh Hasina will stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Ms Hasina is accused of overseeing a system of enforced disappearances during her time in government, as well as the mass killing of protesters in July and August last year.
Read more: Inside Bangladesh’s secret prisons
Speaking to Sky News, Professor Yunus said: “A trial will be taking place. Not only her, but also all the people who are associated with her – her family members, her clients or associates.”
Ms Hasina, who was toppled by the protests and is currently in exile in India, is accused of overseeing a network of secret detention centres where it’s alleged her political opponents were interrogated, tortured and some killed – all under the banner of a “war on terror”.
Bangladesh has issued two arrest warrants for her. Professor Yunus said they had sent “formal letters” but received “no official response” from New Delhi.
He insisted, however, that Ms Hasina would face the court, whether physically present in Bangladesh or in absentia, in India.
Cordelia Lynch speaks with Muhammad Yunus. Pic: Tanbirul Miraj Ripon
Professor Yunus recently visited one of the now infamous secret jails, code-named the ‘House of Mirrors’. The economics professor, known as the ‘banker to the poor’ and now chief adviser of Bangladesh, said he was beyond shocked at what he saw.
“This is just the ugliest thing that you can see, you can feel, or you can observe,” he said.
Ms Hasina is accused of using her security forces and police to oversee the abduction, torture and murder of hundreds of activists.
She denies the allegations and says she’s being politically persecuted.
Former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Pic: AP
Ms Hasina, her close aides and many of those accused of overseeing a network of as many as 800 secret jails have fled Bangladesh.
Professor Yunus said the number and range of people involved in the alleged crimes was “taking time” to work through.
Protests across Bangladesh in August 2024. Pic: AP
Students and other activists during a protest in September 2024 to mark one month since former PM Sheikh Hasina stepped down. Pic: AP
“Everybody was involved in it all,” he said. “The whole government was involved in it. So you cannot distinguish who was really and enthusiastically doing it, who was doing it under orders and who was not quite supportive but carrying out those kinds of things.”
Ms Hasina, the military and police are also accused of a violent crackdown on protesters in July and August which the UN estimates killed as many as 1,400 people in the days before the former prime minister fled.
Professor Yunus tried to manage expectations around how quickly the families of victims will see justice, and whether that will happen under his watch.
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Sky’s Cordelia Lynch has been given rare access inside one of Bangladesh’s secret jails
Elections for a new government in the country could happen as early as December.
“Some will get punished, some will still be under the process, some will still be untraceable,” he said.
Investigations into alleged corruption
The chief adviser has had a large in-tray to deal with since taking over a country in turmoil, including anti-corruption probes into those connected to Ms Hasina.
British Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, who is Ms Hasina’s niece, is one of those being investigated by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Professor Yunus said the case against her was “serious”, that she had a large amount of “wealth left behind” in the country and “everything” would be looked at.
Ms Siddiq resigned as anti-corruption minister in January after being named in the investigation in Bangladesh.
A spokesperson for the London MP said she “totally denies the claims” and had “not been contacted on these matters”.
Managing refugee crisis
The influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh is another challenge for Professor Yunus’s leadership.
There’s been a sharp rise in the number of the mainly Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar into Bangladesh after escalating violence in the country’s long-running civil war.
Professor Yunus said they were now in talks with rebel groups in Myanmar about the possibility of a “safe zone” to eventually help the Rohingya refugees to return to their homeland.
He also acknowledged big problems in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, home to the largest refugee camp in the world, where an estimated one million Rohingya refugees have fled to – and where “violence, drugs and paramilitary activities” are rife.
The tension, Professor Yunus said, “will not disappear”.
Pro-Western candidate Nicusor Dan has unexpectedly beaten hard-right populist George Simion in the Romanian presidential election.
Mr Simion, 38, and his rival – a centrist who’s mayor of Bucharest – faced off in the second round of the contest.
According to the official tally, Mr Dan was leading by nearly nine percentage points with more than 98% of the votes counted.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Dan and his supporters celebrated the exit polls. Pic: Reuters
After exit polls suggested he wasn’t going to win, Trump-supporting Mr Simion rejected the result and said estimates put him 400,000 votes ahead.
Speaking after voting ended, Mr Simion said his election was “clear” as he posted on Facebook: “I won!!! I am the new President of Romania and I am giving back the power to the Romanians!”
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George Simion on Trump, the EU – and his message to UK
Romania’s last election was annulled after its highest court ruled the leading candidate, nationalist Calin Georgescu, should be disqualified due to claims of electoral interference by Russia.
The result is surprising because in the first round, 38-year-old Mr Simion, founder of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), took 40.96% of the vote – almost 20 points ahead.
George Simion rejected the polls but official counting saw him slip behind. Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Dan celebrated on the streets of the capital Bucharest. Pic: AP
An opinion poll on Friday had it much closer, but still suggested the two men were virtually tied.
Mr Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician, is running as an independent and has pledged to clamp down on corruption.
He is also staunchly pro-EU and NATO, and has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security.
When voting closed at 9pm local time, 11.6 million people – about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots. About 1.64 million Romanians living abroad also took part.
About 11.6 million people – 64% of eligible voters – cast ballots. Pic: AP
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The election is being closely watched across Europe amid a rise of support for President Donald Trump.
After polls closed, Mr Dan said “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in the latest vote “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.
“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said.
“There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report issued last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza, with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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A British surgeon working in southern Gaza has compared the region to a “slaughterhouse” because of the daily bombardment from Israeli forces.
Dr Tom Potokar, who is based at the European Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, offered his assessment of Israel’s military offensive after Palestinian health officials reported at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have confirmed their troops have begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
In a video, Dr Potokar said it was “another day of devastation here in Gaza”, adding: “The stories coming from the north… absolutely horrific… particularly around the Indonesian Hospital.”
“I mean, it’s difficult to describe in words what’s happening here… [with the] constant sound of bombardment jets overhead.
“If Cambodia was the killing fields, then Gaza now is the slaughterhouse.”
Mourners at a funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
His reference to Cambodia’s killing fields refers to when more than a million people were murdered in mass executions and buried by the extreme communist guerrilla group, the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
A family in grief at a funeral on Sunday in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Dr Potokar described the impact on those on the ground, saying: “We’ve been operating all morning so far and [treating] awful explosive injuries… [including] one young woman with leg fracture and shoulder fracture and a large wound on her buttock, who came in yesterday and is not yet aware that everyone in our family was killed in the onslaught.”
Israel has launched an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
On Sunday, it announced and launched “extensive” new ground operations in Gaza.
It came after airstrikes killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said: “Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment”.
The ministry also said the bombardment had forced the closure of the Indonesian Hospital, the main hospital serving people in northern Gaza.
Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said more than 48 people – mostly women and children – were killed in the area which includes tents sheltering displaced people.
In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, at least 12 people were killed in three separate strikes, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the Nuseirat camp’s Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestinian Civil Defence – which operates under the Hamas-run government – reported that 19 people were killed in several strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
Read more from Sky News:
How Israel has escalated Gaza bombing campaign
Ceasefire talks are taking place in Qatar this weekend – with Israel saying they involve discussions on ending the war as well as a truce and hostage deal.
A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any lasting truce must include the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the exile of Hamas militants.
But a senior Israeli official added there had been little progress so far during talks in Qatar’s capital Doha.
Sky News Arabia reported Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the discussions said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”
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