Hasina ‘should be extradited’ if she committed crimes: Yunus

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus said former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is sheltered in India, should be extradited if she has committed crimes.
“Why shouldn’t she? If she has committed crimes, she should be extradited and brought to justice,” he said in response to a question on whether Hasina should be extradited at the New York Times Climate Forward summit on Wednesday, where he was one of the speakers.
He is now in New York attending the UN General Assembly.
Prof Yunus, currently the leader of the interim government, was asked if he has any plans to run for office.
He responded in the negative, saying, “Do I look like someone who would run?”
Yunus said he did not have a time frame for when Bangladesh would hold elections. Several commissions that were set up are expected to provide their reform recommendations in the coming months, after which the country will set a date for polls.
The Paris Agreement, the global accord for limiting the effects of climate change, won’t work as long as the world sticks with the current economic system, Muhammad Yunus said.
That system, he said, is centered on maximising profits, creating wealth for a tiny group of people and generating massive waste.
“The economic system we have built is key to the destruction of this planet,” said Yunus. He added that humans had created a “self-destructive civilisation.”
The Nobel laureate and pioneer of microfinance said that no matter what changes were made to the agreement, it would not make a difference until the world’s underlying systems were redesigned.
Developing countries like Bangladesh should not have to bear the burden of the climate damage done by their wealthier counterparts, he said.
“Why should we carry the burden of all the destruction that you put on us?” Yunus said. “You are the cause, we are the result.”
He added that individuals should also bear the responsibility of producing less waste and shrinking their fossil fuel footprint.