Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal faces fair‑trial concerns

Human Rights Watch warned that Bangladesh authorities are failing to meet international fair‑trial standards at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The HRW deputy Asia director, Meenakshi Ganguly, said the tribunal’s procedures allow arrests without solid evidence, prolonged detention without written reasons, limited time for defence preparation, and trials in absentia lacking proper safeguards.

The ICT, created in 2010 by the former Awami League government to try crimes against humanity from the 1971 war, has now charged former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 40 others in a case linked to the 2013 Hefazat‑e‑Islam crackdown. After the Awami League was ousted in 2024, an interim government amended the tribunal’s law, but the current Bangladesh Nationalist Party administration under Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has not introduced further reforms. To date the ICT has completed six trials, convicting 62 people, many in absentia, and sentencing 16 to death.