Bangladesh sentences ex-police chief Habibur Rahman to death for 2024 protest crackdown

DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced Dhaka’s fugitive former police chief and two senior colleagues to be hanged for crimes against humanity committedAll three, including the capital’s former police chief, Habibur Rahman, were tried in absentia, and their whereabouts are not knownThe 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.

“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.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.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

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