Hasina appoints international Counsel to lift ban on Awami League

New Delhi: With the Bangladesh interim government Chief Executive Mohammed Yunus declaring that the country will hold general elections to Parliament in February 2026, the Awami League party has also begun its preparations to “participate in” those elections, from which it has been banned.

The deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who heads the Awami League (AL), has appointed two internationally famous lawyers at the United Nations to argue the case to get the ban on her party removed. Before appointing the counsels, she held a series of meetings with senior AL leaders, at an undisclosed location in India.

Bangladesh’s interim government banned all activities of the Awami League under its Anti-Terrorism Act in May 2025, until the trial of the AL and its leaders is completed in the International Crimes tribunal. The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal has begun framing charges against Hasina and seeks to punish her with death for her crime of killing hundreds of those, including students, who protested against her regime in the run up to her departure from Dhaka in August 2024.

Deposed Prime Minister Hasina, who claims that she never resigned from the post of PM to which she was elected, has appointed Steven Powles KC and Alex Tinsley KC, from Doughty Street Chambers in the British Middle Temple, to submit a request for an urgent hearing and action on behalf of herself, as President of the Awami League, to the UN independent expert on promotion of a democratic international order and other UN Special Rapporteurs regarding the unjustifiable ban on the Awami League.

Mr Steven Powles KC is a specialist criminal lawyer with particular expertise in international crime, extradition and human rights who has represented a number of high profile clients, accused of most “serious crimes” against humanity. He has been working in the field of international law and crime for over 25 years. He has also served as a consultant in the legal advisory section to the UN’s international independent investigation Commission which was investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut.

Alex Tinsley KC is another internationally famous barrister who has specialised in high profile human rights violation cases, including that of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who was accused of leaking military secrets, in his case versus the United Kingdom.

The Awami League’s urgent appeal to the UN independent expert on the promotion of a democratic international order sets out “how the ban of the Awami League violates fundamental human rights, undermines the rule of law and democracy in Bangladesh.” The party was instrumental in the very creation of the country.

The appeal calls on the independent expert and other Rapporteurs to urge the Bangladesh Interim government to hold free and fair elections as a matter of urgency, to lift the ban on the Awami League and to allow them to fully participate in any such election, when they are actually held.

INDIA NEWS STREAM