Exiled foreign despot still holds Australian honour

The Australian National University has been warned of the risk to its reputation.

His ongoing relationship with a foreign leader convicted in absentia for crimes against humanity was not a pleasant sight. Not even close.

But it has been 20 months since former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned without notice and fled to India amid allegations that she ordered the killing of 1,400 student protesters.

According to Australian academics who petitioned at the time, the honorary law degree awarded to him by the ANU in 1999 should have been revoked immediately.

Despite their concerns, and those repeatedly voiced by the AAP since then, the world’s top 35 universities have still not made a call.

Instead, the administration continued to demand more information about the circumstances surrounding Hasina’s exile and said its procedures needed to be updated first.

Anis Chowdhury, one of five academics who signed the letter calling for the ANU to cancel the degree in 2024, condemns the delay.

He, a retired professor from Western Sydney University who was appointed as special minister of state in Bangladesh’s interim government in 2025, said more efforts needed to be made to grant the title in the first place.

“It’s really disappointing to see a highly respected public university dragging its feet on this issue,” he told AAP.

“Even after the UN Human Rights Commission found that Sheikh Hasina played a direct role in the killing of protesters during the mass uprising that toppled her and was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Court.”

Former foreign secretary and ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop withdrew from discussion of the issue due to her relationship with the United Nations.

As a result, the honorary vice-chancellor of the university had to step in and assume its chairmanship.

The committee responsible for dealing with the issue was scheduled to meet at the end of February.

But the resignation of pro-chancellor Alison Kitchen about a week before the meeting delayed it by a month, according to an ANU spokesman.

Later, the meeting planned for March could not be continued.

“Following the recent appointment of a new pro-chancellor, the committee aims to reconvene where the issue regarding Sheikh Hasina will be discussed in more detail,” the spokesman said.

Hasina, who was found guilty by a Bangladesh court on November 17 last year, was convicted in absentia, lost power and disappeared 15 months ago.

On the day he disappeared, a hostile crowd surrounded his house. Amidst the chaos, he was said to have fled the country by car, helicopter and finally air force transport.

He remained holed up in India under tight security, despite reports that he had unsuccessfully sought political asylum in the UK.

He was later charged with 135 counts of murder, seven of crimes against humanity and genocide, three of kidnapping, six of attempted murder and one of attacking a political march.

It was claimed that the murders were carried out deliberately against civilians using unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters and lethal weapons.

The academic petition, obtained by the ANU and a copy of which was submitted to the AAP under freedom of information laws, stipulated its concerns about reputational damage given the serious nature of the alleged atrocities.

Although she was accused of violent repression, Hasina still had to be charged or punished at the time.

“Given Sheikh Hasina’s flagrant human rights violations, subversion of democratic values, brutal repression of student protests that left hundreds dead and thousands injured, and ongoing enforced disappearances and torture in custody, it is a matter of serious concern that she may have inadvertently put at risk the ANU’s reputation as a center of academic and ethical excellence.”

“We request that the ANU Governing Council conduct its own investigation, verify these facts and, if found to be true, decide whether it is in the interest of the university to revoke as soon as possible the HonLLD awarded to Sheikh Hasina in 1999, and in doing so uphold the academic integrity and ethical standards for which ANU is known.”

The letter states that Hasina was seen as an advocate of democracy when she first came to power in 1996, and that she took some laudable initiatives during her first term in office, when the diploma was awarded.

“But his second coming to power in 2008 marked the beginning of his transformation into an autocrat, so much so that his governing arrangements have since evolved into something that shows ‘all the hallmarks of fascism,'” the letter said.

“Sheikh Hasina’s intolerance towards dissidents has no limits.

“Arbitrary arrests and imprisonments of opposition politicians and critics, including opposition members of civil society and journalists, are common occurrences.

“The torture and enforced disappearance of opposition leaders by Sheikh Hasina’s brutal security forces and party men is a regular feature of her governance practice and is done to terrorize and silence critics.”

The ANU approved the proposed changes to revocation procedures, stating that it was not equipped to conduct in-depth investigations.

Some elements of the matter could therefore not be proven or disproved, according to minutes of the committee meeting on August 19, 2025.

At the same meeting, it was decided that the university would work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cases where the proposed cancellations relate to buyers from abroad.

The academic petition was discussed at the committee’s December 2024 meeting when further information was requested.

He agreed to wait for the procedures to be updated.

According to the relevant minutes, this information was provided eight months later.

More details were requested by the committee in late 2025, but this was before Hasina was sentenced to death on 17 November.

He was also found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 10 years in prison in February 2026.