Bangladesh: Interim government commits to human rights reforms as they release activists, protesters and investigate past crimes

Bangladesh’s civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor, its worst rating. It was downgraded in December 2023 as a result of a massive government crackdown on opposition politicians and independent critics in the run-up to national elections. Over the year, the authorities targeted human rights defenders, protesters and other critics, using intimidation, violence, arrest and torture. Authorities also targeted journalists exposing state abuses and shut down critical media outlets.

The quota-reform protests between 15th July and 5th August 2024 saw a brutal crackdown by the state. According to a preliminary analysis of the protests by the UN, security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force in their response to the situation. Alleged violations included extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill- treatment, and severe restrictions on the exercise of freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.

According to the UN report, more than 600 people were killed by the security forces and the student wing affiliated with the Awami League. Reports indicate that a number of those arrested were subjected to ill-treatment and even torture while in police custody. Restrictions on communication, including the imposition of an Internet shutdown by the government between 18th July and 23rd July 2024 and again on 4th and 5th August 2024, severely impacted the rights to freedom of expression, and to peaceful assembly.

Despite the repression, on 5th August 2024, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. On 8th August 2024, Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus was picked to lead an interim government following mass protests in Bangladesh. He formed an interim cabinet which included student protest leaders and members of civil society. In his 25th August speech, Prof Yunus outlined an ambitious vision for a "new Bangladesh" centred on unity, transparency, and democratic renewal.

Since taking office, the interim government has replaced officials who had allegedly engaged in political partisanship, and arrested senior police officers. The Supreme Court chief justice stepped down after protests demanding his resignation.

Bangladesh signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances on 29th August 2024 and announced the formation of a commission of inquiry on all cases of enforced disappearances during the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk received an official invitation from Yunus to conduct an impartial and independent fact-finding mission into human rights violations committed from 1st July to 15th August. On 22nd August 2024, a team of UN experts arrived to discuss the process for investigating human rights violations.

On 11th September 2024, Yunus announced the formation of six commissions aimed at addressing fundamental sectors - electoral system, police, judiciary, anti-corruption, public administration, and constitutional reform. These commissions started their work from 1st October and the plan is to finish their jobs within the next three months. At the same time lawlessness and mob violence against supporters of the previous government continues to be reported, and there are continued tensions with India.

On 17th October 2024, the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 44 other people, including senior members of her cabinet for “massacres, killings and crimes against humanity” during the mass protests against her government.

Since the political transation, the courts have dropped cases against human rights defenders . The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has received more than 400 complaints while released protesters and political prisoners said that they were tortured in detention. Journalists have also been arrested and charged for alleged ‘crimes against humanity’.

Association

Court scraps jail term against human rights defenders from Odhikar

On 22nd August 2024, the High Court scrapped a Dhaka Cyber Tribunal’s verdict that jailed noted human rights defender and former Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan for two years in a case related to alleged violation of the now-defunct Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.

As previously documented, following the 2013 publication of Odhikar’s fact-finding report documenting extrajudicial killings during a protest, both defenders were arbitrarily detained. After being released on bail, they continued to face prosecution and judicial harassment on trumped-up allegations that their 2013 report was “fake, distorted, and defamatory.”

After ten years of judicial harassment, on 14th September 2023, the two human rights defenders were sentenced to two years in prison and a 10,000 Bangladeshi Taka (USD 91) fine each in retaliation for their work documenting human rights violations in Bangladesh. On 10th October, the High Court granted them bail for one year and admitted their appeal for a hearing. The court also suspended the fine.

In addition to targeting Odhikar’s leaders, the government interfered with the organisation’s ability to conduct its human rights work by blocking its access to funds and keeping its registration renewal application pending since 2014. In June 2022, the Government’s NGO Affairs Bureau officially denied Odhikar’s application for renewal.

In another positive development, in August 2024, the High Court declared illegal the NGO Affairs Bureau decision not to renew Odhikar’s registration.

Court acquits Muhammad Yunus in politically motivated cases

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus was acquitted in two politically motivated cases in August 2024. On 7th August 2024, he was acquitted in a labour violation case in which he had been sentenced to six months in jail.

Yunus is the founder of the micro-financing institution Grameen Bank. In 2006, he and his bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work lifting millions out of poverty by granting microloans. However, he has earned the enmity of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has made several scathing verbal attacks against him.

He was facing over 100 charges on allegations of corruption and labour law violations. Yunus denied the charges, saying the government was engaged in a judicial harassment campaign against him. On 1st January 2024, Yunus was convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws. He and three of his Grameen Telecom colleagues were sentenced to six months in jail for failing to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company.

On 12th August 2024, he was acquitted in a graft case filed by the nation’s Anti-Corruption Commission, just days after he was sworn in to run an interim government.

In September 2023, the UN raised concerns about the intimidation and harassment against Yunus which has persisted for almost a decade. The smear campaigns against him emanate from the highest levels of government, undermining his right to a fair trial and due process in line with international standards.

400 complaints filed with commission on disappearances

On 3rd October 2024, it was reported that the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances had received about 400 complaints of enforced disappearances from the victims and their families since 15th September.

The commission chief and a former High Court Division judge, Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, said that the incidents of these enforced disappearances occurred during the Awami League regime between 6th January 2009 and 5th August 2024.

He said that the commission had found the existence of a Joint Interrogation Cell, popularly known as ‘Aynaghor’, in the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence headquarters premises and there were 22 cells for the detainees there.

Moyeenul said that most of the victims of enforced disappearance accused the Rapid Action Battalion, DGFI and Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s detective branch and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit for their enforced disappearances.

According to Bangladeshi human rights monitors, security forces had carried out over 600 enforced disappearances since 2009, when Sheikh Hasina first took office. While some people were later released, produced in court, or said to have died during an armed exchange with security forces, nearly 100 people remain missing.

Trumped-up murder case against human rights defender dropped

On 21st October 2024, it was reported that the attempted murder case against ZI Khan Panna, Supreme Court lawyer and Chairman of human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), has been withdrawn after his name was removed by the plaintiff.

The case was filed on 17th October 2024. A total of 180 people, including Awami League’s general secretary Obaidul Quader and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan were accused in the case. ZI Khan Panna was accused no. 94 in the case.

The case was filed over the attempted murder of Ahadul Islam, who was shot and beaten on 19th July during the mass protests against the Hasina government. The demonstrators were attacked by security forces as well as leaders of Awami League and its associate organisations.

FORUM-ASIA said Panna was vocal in supporting students during the protests and had raised concerns about the charges, calling them ‘unwarranted’. They urged the authorities to drop the charges.

Released protesters and political prisoners tortured in detention

Following the ousting of the Hasina government, those detained during the protest as well as other political prisoners, some detained secretly, were released by President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Student leader and protester Iftekhar Alam, who was detained and blindfolded by half a dozen armed police officers, believes he was taken to Aynaghor, known in Bangladesh as the “House of Mirrors” – a notorious detention centre at the headquarters of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) in the capital Dhaka.

During the interrogations, Alam said he was pressured to reveal the locations of the protest leaders. His captors threatened to “vanish” and kill him if he didn’t. In detention, he says security personnel tortured him for hours – they beat him all over his body with metal pipes until they broke bones in his foot, then forced him to walk around in circles over and over, making him vomit from the pain. They also extinguished cigarettes on his hands and feet, screaming at him that he would be punished further if he cried out in pain – calling it a “game,” he said.

Alam said his interrogators told him that the next phase was electric shocks and waterboarding – and gave him a “sample” of the electric shock on the back of his neck as a warning.

Michael Chakma, an Indigenous rights activist who disappeared in April 2019 after being snatched off the streets, was also released on 5th August. The 45-year-old was one of a handful of people released from detention in the aftermath of the student uprising.

He said he endured mental and physical torture during his captivity in spaces so confined it felt like “a grave”, in a clandestine prison allegedly operated by the military intelligence directorate (DGFI).

During his captivity, Chakma was moved around a few times. Conditions were grim: tiny, poorly ventilated cells devoid of natural light and sounds from the outside world.

Chakma said he had lost all hope of ever seeing his family or daylight again. “I often begged the guard who escorted me to the toilet to just shoot and kill me.”

He says he was repeatedly interrogated about his criticisms of Hasina’s ruling party, the Awami League (AL). While he was in detention, Chakma says he was treated as a terrorism suspect and questioned about hidden weapons. During the sweltering summer months, guards would turn off the fans, while in winter they increased the fan speed.

Expression

Journalists affiliated to previous regime arrested and charged

On 29th August 2024, at least 25 journalists were charged with crimes against humanity for the death of a protester in July 2024. The list of journalists includes Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed, who have already been charged with instigating murder during the mass protests and are currently behind bars.

Police detained Rupa and Ahmed — who were dismissed from their positions at Ekattor TV - a TV channel deemed sympathetic to the former government - on 8th August at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on 21st August. To date, they are the only journalists named in this case that are in detention.

In addition to this vast legal complaint for crimes against humanity, on 28th August 2024, three other journalists – along with former prime minister Hasina – were named in another case concerning the murder of a protester. The police had not yet issued any arrest warrants, however, at the time of this report.

The complaint accuses Mahmudul Alam Noyon, correspondent for the newspaper Dainik Janakantha in the northwestern city of Bogra and vice-president of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ); Hasibur Rahman Bilu, head of the local bureau of the news channel Independent Television; and J. M. Rauf, correspondent for the newspaper Dainik Kaler Kantho and president of the local journalists' union, of playing a role in the death of a protester named Mohammad Shimul.

On 16th September 2024, police detained two other Ekattor TV journalists — Mozammel Babu, managing director and editor-in-chief, and Mahbubur Rahman, a senior reporter — along with Shyamal Dutta, editor of the privately owned newspaper Bhorer Kagoj, and their driver, after the group allegedly attempted to enter India lllegally from Bangladesh’s northern Mymensingh district.

The following day, a Dhaka court ordered that Babu and Dutta be held in a seven-day police remand in two separate murder cases, while Rahman and the driver were released. Both are among the 25 charged with crimes against humanity.

Antoine Bernard, RSF’s Director of Advocacy and Assistance said: "The purge of journalists who are considered to be affiliated with the former government has reached a new level. Media professionals are bearing the brunt of the need for vengeance that permeates this terrible legal cabal, which is hurting the image of the political transition under way in Bangladesh.”

These crimes will be examined by the International Crimes Tribunal, a special court set up in 1973 to judge abuses committed during Bangladesh's war of independence. The court has previously been fraught with violations of fair trial standards. This included failure of evidence gathering, lack of independence of judges, including collusion with prosecutors, witness tampering, denying proper rights to defence, forcibly disappearing relatives of the accused, and the use of the death penalty.