On 12 February 2026, The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured a landslide victory in the national elections held, with Jamaat-e-Islami finishing in second place.
Tajul Islam, along with several members of his prosecution team, was widely perceived as being close to Jamaat. He had been appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in September 2024 by the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which assumed power on 8 August 2024 following student-led protests that resulted in the fall of the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.
“When I took charge, the main building was abandoned. Activities were running from a tin shed. The previous prosecution team had fled, leaving everything in disarray. Books and documents were getting soaked in the rain — we started amid that chaos,” he recalled, following the government’s decision to replace him.
He expressed confidence that the three tribunal’s verdicts delivered during his tenure would withstand scrutiny on appeal. “The judgments delivered and the documents we presented leave no scope to be overturned. If you review past tribunal records, you will see the strength of the evidence we placed before the court,” he said.
A BNP aligned new prosecutor
The new chief prosecutor, advocate Aminul Islam, previously served as central vice president of the BNP lawyers’ forum and reportedly sought the party’s nomination for a parliamentary constituency in the recent elections. He also represented Khaleda Zia — mother of the new prime minister — in the corruption case that led to her conviction in 2018.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, the newly appointed prosecutor said he intended to carry out his duties “according to the aspirations of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the July [2024] Uprising”. He added that while individuals who had committed no wrongdoing would not face harassment, “for the real offenders, I want to send a clear message on behalf of the prosecution that they will receive the punishment they deserve.”
During the interim government period [8 August 2024 to February 2026] senior government posts were informally divided between figures associated with the BNP and Jamaat. Following its electoral victory, the BNP-led government has begun replacing appointees seen as aligned with Jamaat with individuals loyal to its own party.
One high profile trial for crimes against humanity
Tajul Islam’s appointment was intended to allow the prosecution of crimes against humanity charges relating to the hundreds of killings and thousands of injuries suffered by protesters and bystanders during the three weeks preceding the fall of Hasina’s government.
Then, following investigations by a newly formed Commission on enforced disappearances, the ICT prosecutors later expanded its mandate to include enforced disappearances that occurred during the Awami League’s period in power between 2008 and 2024. This has resulted in the issuance of 24 arrest warrants against army officers currently being prosecuted in two different trials.
During his 17-month tenure, Tajul Islam oversaw the completion of three crimes against humanity trials relating to the 2024 killings, securing convictions against 27 individuals, including Awami League politicians and police officers.
The most high-profile case resulted in the conviction and death sentences of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal. Both flew to exile in India, and extradition appears unlikely despite requests from the Bangladeshi government.
In the same trial, former police chief Abdullah Al-Mamun received a five-year sentence after providing a confessional statement that implicated his two co-accused.
Apart from Mamun’s statement, other key evidence that supported the conviction was a recording of an intercepted telephone conversation between Hasina and the former mayor of South Dhaka, Fazle Noor Taposh – who is also Hasina’s nephew – which took place at around 10pm on 18 July 2024, in which Hasina is heard saying: “I’ve already given the instruction. This is an open directive now. They’re to use lethal weapons. Wherever they’re found, shoot on sight.”
Although there is some disagreement about the context of this comment, on the day after as many as 180 protestors and bystanders were shot dead.
Eight police officers sentenced for the shootings
The other two completed cases concerned incidents on 5 August 2024, the day student leaders called for a “March on Dhaka,” which culminated in Hasina’s departure to India.
In Chankharpul, near Dhaka University, six student protesters were shot dead by police that morning. The tribunal sentenced former Dhaka Metropolitan police commissioner Habibur Rahman, former joint commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty, and former additional deputy commissioner Shah Alam Mohammad Akhtarul Islam to death for ordering the shootings. All three were tried in absentia and remain absconding.
The five other police officers, three of whom were convicted for carrying out the shooting, were sentenced to between 3 to 6 years of imprisonment. They were all present in the dock.
Families of those killed felt the imprisonment sentences were too lenient. Sanjida Khan, the mother of Shahriar Khan Anas, one of those killed said, “We can never be satisfied with this verdict. We did not get Justice.” Tajul Islam at the time said that he would be appealing against the sentences.
The third case concerned events in Ashulia, which occurred hours after Hasina left Bangladesh. Seven protesters were killed, including five whose bodies were burned after death and one who was reportedly set on fire while still alive.
Six men – including the local Member of Parliament, the officer in charge of the police station, and a local Awami League youth leader – were sentenced to death. In addition, seven senior police officials received life sentences, and two other more junior police officers received seven years imprisonment. An accused police officer who turned “approver” giving evidence at the trial was acquitted.
In both the Chankharpul and Ashulia cases, video footage of the shootings and burnings formed a significant part of the prosecution evidence. However, the written judgments of both these cases have not yet been made public.
There are a further 8 ongoing trials, with 2 other due to come for judgment in March 2026
ICT shortcomings
Despite these convictions, concerns have been raised by defence lawyers and commentators about aspects of the trial process.
These include limited time afforded to defence lawyers to prepare for trial; trials starting even before the defence lawyers have copies of the charges; restrictions on numbers and types of defence witnesses; and in absentia trials with lawyers representing several clients often with conflicting interests. In addition, there is concern that judges are failing to scrutinise the prosecution evidence with significant rigour.
Another problem that has emerged is long periods of detention, for suspects awaiting to find out whether they will be charged. Even though the rules of procedure suggest that no one can be detained pre-charge for over a year unless there are “exceptional circumstances”, the ICT continues to detain at least 8 men in this situation.
Concerning the detention of Fazleh Karim Chowdhury one former Awami League leader, Lord Alex Carlile, a British King Council who looked over the papers for the family said that “the procedure that has been used against him has no legal credibility whatsoever.” “If [the ICT prosecutors] have got evidence against him, they should serve it on him, but they haven’t… There was no statement of evidence, no photographs, no documents showing he supported the things he is accused of. You can’t detain someone for a year and pretend that you have the evidence against them until you serve it,” he declared to the Daily Star.
In January 2026, the UK based international crimes lawyer Toby Cadman said he declined to extend his one year contract as special adviser to the ICT chief prosecutor. His departure raised questions about why he had decided not to continue but he has refused to comment publicly.
Human rights organisation have also criticised the death penalty sentencing, though except for one convicted person the death penalty has only been imposed for accused in absentia.
A new prosecutor under pressure
The ICT is under significant pressure to complete the trials quickly, and certain student groups have been active in pressing for more prosecutions and hanging.
But it remains unclear what changes the new chief prosecutor will make to the operation of the Court. One interesting question is how Aminul Islam will deal with the ongoing trials involving the army officers. His predecessor initiated, for the first time in Bangladesh’s judicial history, trials of serving and former army officers in relation to enforced disappearances.
It is difficult to imagine that such trials would have been launched had the BNP been in power with a party-aligned prosecutor in place, and with an army that will not fail to push the government to try and bring these prosecutions to an end.
