Since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, 2025, Bangladesh’s judiciary has become the most visible battleground in the country’s deepening political war. Critics of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, including former Awami League ministers and the exiled former prime minister herself, accuse the administration of systematically weaponising courts to persecute one political side while granting impunity to the other.
The removal of a High Court judge, politically motivated appointments to sensitive tribunals, mass withdrawal of cases against anti-Awami League activists, and the alleged release of convicted militants stand in stark contrast to the aggressive prosecution—and in some cases extrajudicial persecution—of Awami League leaders and supporters.
The Forced Removal of Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar
One of the clearest examples of alleged executive overreach came with the abrupt removal of High Court Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar.
According to former State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat, speaking in a widely circulated podcast on Saturday, Justice Sarkar was stripped of his position simply because “Yunus and his administration don’t like him.”
Arafat claims the interim government unlawfully pressured President Mohammed Shahabuddin to invoke his constitutional authority and remove the judge—an action that bypasses the Supreme Judicial Council, the only body constitutionally empowered to discipline or remove superior court judges for proven misconduct or incapacity.
The Daily Star and several other outlets confirmed the removal but offered no official explanation from the Law Ministry. Opposition voices insist the real reason was Justice Sarkar’s refusal to toe the new political line in politically sensitive cases.
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Khurshid is one of the 12 High Court judges barred from judicial duties since October 16 last year. Earlier, two other HC judges—Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman and Justice Khizir Hayat—were removed from office based on similar recommendations.
These actions followed protests on the SC premises on October 16, where demonstrators—mostly students—demanded the removal of “pro-Awami League fascist judges.”
Packing Tribunal With Political Loyalists
Even more explosive are the appointments to the revived International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD), the body now trying Sheikh Hasina and dozens of senior Awami League figures for alleged crimes against humanity during the July-August 2025 uprising.
Barrister Shafiul Alam Mahmud, a former organising secretary of the BNP-affiliated Nationalist Lawyers’ Forum and an active participant in anti-Awami League processions during the 2025 monsoon revolution, was elevated directly to the High Court bench and, within six days, transferred to the ICT-BD. Photographs circulating on social media show Shafiul in street protests wearing the trademark white shirt and sunglasses of BNP legal activists. Critics point out that he had zero prior judicial experience – a prerequisite normally considered essential for a High Court appointment.
Sheikh Hasina, in her virtual address to party leaders on Thursday night, described the tribunal as “a complete farce” and ridiculed its claim to be “international” when every judge and prosecutor is a local political appointee. She also highlighted that the government has repeatedly amended the 1973 International Crimes (Tribunals) Act through executive ordinances—even mid-trial—in clear violation of separation-of-powers principles.
Selective Justice
While the ICT-BD races to try Awami League leaders in absentia, thousands of cases filed against activists of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and other components of the 2025 uprising have been quietly withdrawn. Human rights monitors and Awami League sources claim that over 45,000 cases—many involving murder, arson, and attacks on police—have been dropped since August, often on the verbal or written instruction of the Law Ministry or local administrators.
More alarmingly, several convicted militants and terrorists sentenced during the Awami League era have reportedly been released or had their cases “re-examined.” Although the government denies any systematic release of dangerous extremists, families of victims and prison sources have documented cases of individuals previously jailed under anti-terrorism laws walking free after the change of regime.
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In contrast, Awami League leaders and even grassroots workers face what many describe as vengeance rather than justice. Hundreds remain in hiding or have fled the country; those arrested are routinely denied bail, charged under multiple overlapping cases, and—according to their lawyers—subjected to coercion to implicate senior party figures, including Sheikh Hasina.
‘Only Awami League Can Restore Rule Of Law’
Speaking from exile on Thursday, Sheikh Hasina launched her sharpest attack yet on the Yunus administration, declaring that “under Yunus, no election can ever be free or fair” and accusing the Nobel laureate of personally ordering army shootings in her home district of Gopalganj. Dismissing reports that the ICT had already issued her a death sentence, Hasina defiantly stated: “He whom Allah keeps alive, who can kill?”
She challenged the government to publish the alleged list of 1,400 deaths during the 2025 uprising and accused the authorities of fabricating evidence, citing the controversial case of student Abu Sayed, whose father reportedly testified that the fatal bullet entered from the back—contradicting the widely circulated video claiming a chest shot.
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Hasina concluded with a grim prognosis: “Bangladesh has been turned into a sanctuary for militants under the leadership of Dr. Muhammad Yunus. There is no law, no justice, no rule of law.”
A Judiciary Divided
As Bangladesh approaches what the interim government promises will be elections in 2026, the state of the judiciary has emerged as the single biggest point of contention. For Yunus supporters, the changes represent long-overdue accountability for 15 years of alleged Awami League authoritarianism. For the Awami League and a growing number of independent legal voices, they amount to the capture of one of the last remaining independent institutions by a coalition seeking permanent revenge rather than transitional justice.
Until an impartial mechanism—perhaps international oversight or a restored Supreme Judicial Council—is accepted by all sides, Bangladesh’s courts will continue to deliver two very different versions of justice: swift punishment for the old regime and near-total impunity for its successors.
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