Bangladesh court sentences ex-police chief, 2 others to death for 2024 protest crackdown

Verdict comes before Feb 12 polls, the first since Hasina’s August 2024 overthrow in nation of 170m

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced Dhaka’s fugitive former police chief and two senior colleagues to be hanged for crimes against humanity committed during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

All three, including the capital’s former police chief, Habibur Rahman, were tried in absentia, and their whereabouts are not known.

The verdict comes ahead of elections on February 12, the first in the South Asian country of 170 million people since Hasina’s overthrow in August 2024.

Five other ex-police officers were sentenced to varying terms.

The case concerned the killing of six protesters in Dhaka on August 5, 2024, the day Hasina fled to India as protesters stormed her palace.

Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations.

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“The police forces … opened fire with lethal weapons… causing death to the aforesaid six persons,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka.

The court heard how Rahman sent messages to police units ordering the use of lethal force to crush the protests.

Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said he was satisfied with the verdict against the three men, although he wanted tougher sentences for the five others found guilty who were handed prison terms.

“The court said their crimes have been proved and they committed crimes against humanity,” Islam told the reporters after the verdict.

In November, the same court also sentenced Hasina — who remains in hiding in India — to death for crimes against humanity. She refused to attend the trial and denies the charges.

In that case, former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death in absentia after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who was in court and had pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.