Amnesty urges ICT for trial of deadly crackdown ordered by ex-PM Hasina

Amnesty International, a UK-based human rights organisation, has urged the government to present all acts of brutality that took place between 1 July and 15 August last year before the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for trial under Article 14 of the Rome Statute.

As new information analysed by the BBC emerges alleging audio-evidence of Bangladesh’s ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering a deadly crackdown during the July-August protests in 2024, Amnesty International calls on authorities once more to hold perpetrators of the violence to account.

A UN Fact-finding report released in February 2025 claimed that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests, "the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by Bangladesh’s security forces. Thousands more suffered severe, often life-altering injuries,” it said on its South Asia Facebook page.

Bangladeshi authorities must ensure an independent investigation into all human rights violations committed during the period, followed by a fair trial that adheres to due process safeguards without recourse to the death penalty, against all those who carried out the violence, as well as those who commanded it.

Additionally, Amnesty International strongly urges the interim government to consider referring the incidents which took place between 1 July and 15 August in Bangladesh to the International Criminal Court in line with Article 14 of the Rome Statute - in line with the recommendation made in the UN report.