DHAKA: Bangladesh’s new chief justice has taken oath after his predecessor, a loyalist of toppled premier Sheikh Hasina, quit following protester demands, said a presidential official on Sunday.
Syed Refaat Ahmed, the senior-most judge of the high court, was sworn into office by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, said the president’s press secretary Shiplu Zaman.
“He became the 25th chief justice of Bangladesh,” Zaman said.
Syed Refaat Ahmed had studied at the University of Dhaka, Oxford and Tufts University in the United States. Hasina on Monday fled by helicopter to India as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her rule.
Her government was accused of widespread human rights violations including the extrajudicial killing of her political opponents over her 15-year rule.
Ahmed’s predecessor Obaidul Hassan became the latest to announce his exit after hundreds of protesters gathered outside the court to demand his step down.
Hassan, appointed last year, oversaw a much-criticised war crimes tribunal that ordered the execution of Hasina’s opponents.
Interim leader of Bangladesh, Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this week to head a temporary administration.
He said the restoration of law and order is the caretaker administration’s “first priority”. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his phenomenal work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.
He assumed office on Thursday as “chief advisor” to a caretaker administration.
