You are here

  • Home
  • Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam arrives to talk to the media at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We (AP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/ppmqw

Updated 10 July 2025
AFP
Follow

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity

Bangladesh ex-top cop pleads guilty to crimes against humanity
  • Former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Mamun has agreed to assist the court by acting as a witness, giving “all the knowledge he has regarding the crimes committed during the July-August uprising”
Updated 10 July 2025
AFP
Follow

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s former police chief pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity committed during a crackdown on protests last year, while ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was formally indicted, prosecutors said after the trial resumed Thursday.

Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government attempted to crush a student-led uprising.

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.

Former inspector general of police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Mamun “pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity,” Muhammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at the ICT, told reporters.

Islam said Mamun has agreed to assist the court by acting as a witness, giving “all the knowledge he has regarding the crimes committed during the July-August uprising.”

The court has approved separate accommodation to ensure Mamun’s safety.

The tribunal on Thursday also rejected defense lawyers’ request to have the charges against Hasina and her interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal dismissed.

Both Hasina and Kamal were formally indicted in the same case.

Amir Hossain, the state-appointed counsel for Hasina and Kamal, however remained hopeful.

“The trial is at an initial stage, and there are several other phases,” he said.

Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India as the protests ended her 15-year rule. She has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka, where her trial in absentia opened on June 1.

Hasina faces at least five charges at the ICT, including “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.”

Prosecutors say that Hasina held overall command responsibility for the violence.

She was already convicted of contempt of court in a separate case on July 2, receiving a six-month sentence.

Fugitive former minister Kamal is also believed to be in India.

Topics: Bangladesh

Related

Bangladesh warms to China, Pakistan after revolution as India fumes
World

Bangladesh warms to China, Pakistan after revolution as India fumes

Bangladesh detains Hasina era ex-election chief
World

Bangladesh detains Hasina era ex-election chief

Nigerian aid groups help children accused of witchcraft to rebuild lives

Updated 1 sec ago
Follow

Nigerian aid groups help children accused of witchcraft to rebuild lives

Nigerian aid groups help children accused of witchcraft to rebuild lives
Updated 1 sec ago
EKET: Accused by her aunt at age 13 of being a witch responsible for her family’s misfortunes, Faith ran away from her rural home in the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom after being deprived of food for days on end.
Now aged 19, she is studying Science Laboratory Technology at a polytechnic in the town of Eket, also in the state, and has ambitions to train as a medical doctor.
“I want to prove I’m not what they said I was,” Faith, whose parents are both dead, told Reuters.
Reuters has withheld the full names of the victims to protect their identity, given the stigma attached to children accused of withcraft.
The turnaround in Faith’s fortunes came after a gruelling 20-km (12-mile) walk with no food to sustain her, she made it to a shelter run by CRARN, an aid group dedicated to helping children accused of witchcraft.
CRARN, which stands for Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network, estimates that more than 30,000 Nigerian children have faced accusations of witchcraft over the past 20 years.
Even though the Nigerian government has passed laws at both the federal and state level to prevent witchcraft-related child abuse, activists say the practice is still widespread.
“If a child is accused of witchcraft, they’re often beaten, abandoned, and left to roam the streets. We rescue them and give them a chance to learn,” said Ima Itauma, a program manager at CRARN.
The problem is most prevalent in the southern coastal states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River, which are majority Christian, but where traditional beliefs that attribute adversity to supernatural causes such as possession by malevolent spirits, are also widespread.
The phenomenon is also driven by the influence of evangelical pastors and witch doctors who offer to exorcise children possessed by Satan for a fee — a lucrative business for them.
Faith’s aunt accused her of witchcraft when her uncle’s motorcycle broke down and the family business faltered.
“Even when I took first position in school, my aunt said it was my witchcraft people that gave it to me,” she said.

DESPITE ADVOCACY, PROBLEM STILL PREVALENT CRARN and similar groups such as Street Mentors Network and Way to the Nations say education is the means for children accused of being witches to build a better future. The organizations, which are partially self-funded, provide food and shelter for the children as well as schooling.
Faith is one of about 200 young people who were accused of witchcraft as children and helped by CRARN to reach higher education since 2003, the organization says.
“When a child can read, write and think, they gain the power of choice,” said Anita Michael, founder of Street Mentors Network, which is currently caring for five children. All are attending school or learning vocational skills.
While accusations against children are made within families and during church services or exorcism ceremonies, few people who support such practices are willing to discuss them openly.
A pastor at a church in Eket where one of the rescued children had been branded a witch declined to comment. Another prominent local pastor, asked to comment in general on the issue, did not respond to calls or messages. Leonardo Santos, co-founder of Way to the Nations, said that despite years of advocacy, progress was frustratingly slow and accusations kept coming.
At the CRARN shelter, a 13-year-old student recounted how at age nine, his mother led him into the bush and attacked him with a machete, wounding his neck, shoulder and back, then covered him with grass and left him for dead. He had been accused of witchcraft by the pastor at a local church.
“I stayed in that bush for three days,” he said, crying as he spoke. “I couldn’t walk. I used my knees to crawl to the road.”
A passerby found him, gave him bread and took him to a hospital. After treatment, Friday was taken to a rehabilitation center where he now lives and attends school.
He wants to become a lawyer “so I can sue my mum for this.”

Latest updates

Nigerian aid groups help children accused of witchcraft to rebuild lives

Nigerian aid groups help children accused of witchcraft to rebuild lives

In Kyrgyzstan, world’s largest natural walnut forest thins away

In Kyrgyzstan, world’s largest natural walnut forest thins away

TV soaps and diplomacy as Bangladesh and Turkiye grow closer

TV soaps and diplomacy as Bangladesh and Turkiye grow closer

YouTube launches Health Panels in UAE to boost access to reliable medical information

YouTube launches Health Panels in UAE to boost access to reliable medical information

Rising Emirati designer Azza Rashed Al-Suwaidi talks Dolce & Gabbana award

Rising Emirati designer Azza Rashed Al-Suwaidi talks Dolce & Gabbana award

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.

Change Preferred Languages

Select Your Preferred Languages

Tap to add languages one at a time (Maximum 5)

Selected: 0/5
Tap to add languages...