DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi courts have reportedly convicted more than 1,100 opposition officials and activists since September, raising questions about the state of political freedom and rule of law in the country.
The convictions come amidst accusations of a crackdown on opposition figures by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, with thousands arrested after protests challenging her leadership.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) contends that these cases are politically motivated, alleging that they are aimed at suppressing potential alternatives to Hasina’s longstanding rule of nearly 15 years. The party’s legal affairs chief, Kayser Kamal, emphasized that over 1,000 BNP activists and several dozen activists from other opposition parties were convicted in the past three months alone, across 69 cases.
The latest convictions, which include 127 BNP activists sentenced to prison on Wednesday, further intensify concerns about the fairness and political neutrality of the legal proceedings. Some of the defendants were reportedly found guilty of violence during Bangladeshi elections in 2014 and 2018.
While Chief Prosecutor Abdullah Abu defends the trials, stating they are not politically motivated but aimed at reducing case backlogs, critics argue that the convictions represent a “chilling pattern of repression.” Opposition leaders, including Kamal, claim that the lower judiciary is influenced by the executive branch to deliver judgments against political activists for political purposes.
The situation has caught international attention, with the United States expressing deep concern over the mass arrests of thousands of opposition members and reports of torture in prison. As Bangladesh approaches elections in January, these developments raise questions about the democratic environment and civil liberties in the country.
