In a bold escalation of international scrutiny on Bangladesh’s fragile transition, a coalition of anonymous human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and expatriate citizens has submitted a comprehensive dossier to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), exposing the ugly face of Islamofascist Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Titled โChronological Assessment of Judicial Violations in Bangladesh After the Fifth of August 2024,โ the 100-page document accuses the interim government under Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus of orchestrating a “legal collapse” through extrajudicial killings, mass arbitrary arrests, and the politicisation of the judiciaryโacts it claims constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.
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They have asked the ICC to probe into post-August 2024 violations, sought the ICJโs advisory opinion on constitutional and rights failures and a UN-led independent commission for evidence preservation.
From Quota Protests to Constitutional Void
The dossier traces Bangladesh’s descent into what it calls an “unprecedented constitutional vacuum” to the chaotic days following Hasina’s flight to India. Sparked in June 2024 by a High Court ruling reinstating a 30% job quota for descendants of 1971 Liberation War veteransโreversing a 2018 abolitionโthe protests evolved from campus demonstrations into a mass non-cooperation movement by early August.
Clashes peaked on July 18 and August 5, with protesters demanding Hasina’s resignation amid widespread internet blackouts, arbitrary arrests exceeding 11,000, and over 20,000 injuries.
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Within three days of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, Yunus’ unelected interim government assumed power without a published constitutional mandate, despite references to presidential and judicial advice, the authors claim. This “institutional capture,” as termed in the document, allegedly erased election timelines, civil rights safeguards, and state accountability mechanisms.
A subsequent court declaration of legitimacy lacked any written basis, paving the way for what the dossier describes as an “illegal structure” where law serves as a tool of repression rather than rule.
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In the ensuing chaos, radical militants exploited the void: multiple prisons were stormed, allowing escapes and bail for extremists; police armouries were looted; and scores of officers were killed, though official death tolls remain undisclosed. Most alarmingly, a Home Ministry directive granted blanket impunity to those involved in July-August violence, effectively halting arrests or trialsโa move the dossier labels a “declaration of lawlessness.”
Judicial Overhaul and Political Vendetta
The document’s core allegations centre on the judiciary’s “complete restructuring” under Yunus. Loyal judges received promotions, while dissenters were sidelined.
The reconstituted International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)โoriginally established in 2009 to prosecute 1971 war crimesโsaw experienced jurists replaced by “politically convenient” figures, including a former defense lawyer for war crimes accused appointed as chief prosecutor. The ICT Act has been amended four times through illegitimate ordinances as part of a political vendetta. This exemplifies “institutional capture.”
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A wave of political retaliation followed. Citing Human Rights Watch (HRW) data, the dossier reports over 92,000 charges against AL supporters and ex-officials since August 2024, with 18,000 arrests under “Operation Devil Hunt”โa sweeping campaign targeting perceived regime loyalists.
Journalists faced murder and terrorism charges, leading to the effective shutdown of independent outlets; many fled abroad, while others vanished. By May 2025, amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act formally banned the AL, prohibiting meetings, publications, and online activitiesโa “temporary” measure tied to ongoing ICT trials that HRW warns could endure for years, proscribing the party indefinitely.
Violence escalated in 2025. On July 16, security forces clashed with pro-Hasina activists in Gopalganjโher ancestral strongholdโkilling at least five unarmed civilians during a rally by Yunusโ National Citizen Party (NCP); families were coerced into hasty burials without autopsies, per local reports.
Concurrently, minority communities endured “terrifying” assaults: In Rangpur, mobs razed Hindu homes and temples; in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), indigenous Jumma villages burned amid ethnic clashes, displacing families and drawing UN condemnation for state inaction. By September, the army firing in CHT killed four tribals protesting a gang-rape by settlers, injuring 40 more.
Journalists bore the brunt: Over 300 endured torture in 2025’s first nine months, two were killedโincluding Asaduzzaman Tuhin, hacked to death in August for filming armed gangsโand more than 100 faced charges, per the dossier and RSF data.
Legal Analysis: Crimes Against Humanity?
Framing these events as a “legal analysis” rather than mere grievances, the anonymous authorsโidentifying only as “concerned Bangladeshi citizens”โinvoke the Rome Statute and UN Charter. Systematic killings, disappearances, torture, and persecution by state actors, they argue, cross into ICC jurisdiction, especially as Bangladesh ratified the Statute in 2010.
The interim regime’s actionsโextrajudicial executions, mass detentions, media suppression, and judicial meddlingโviolate Bangladesh’s international obligations, the document contends, urging a “preliminary ICC investigation.”
The authors’ anonymity underscores the peril: “Speaking out risks dire consequences, but silence implicates us in the crime.” Their cold, analytical tone belies “burning anger, pain, and duty,” portraying the dossier as a “moral document” and historical archive. It warns Bangladesh teeters between “justice lost or reborn,” reminding that “no crime stays buried forever.”
Yunus’s government, which established 11 reform commissions and ratified anti-disappearance treaties, has dismissed such critiques as exaggerated, vowing elections by mid-2026. Yet HRW and others decry a “cycle of repression,” with arbitrary Awami League detentions outpacing prosecutions of Hasina-era perpetrators.
As history’s “slow but sure” court looms, the dossier poses a stark question: Can Yunus’s “second independence” deliver accountability, or will shadows of impunity endure?
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