On May 10, 2025, the interim government in Bangladesh further amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 through ordinance no. 20, 2025. It thus authorised the tribunal to suspend and prohibit the activities of any political party (including its front organisations), cancel its registration and confiscate its property if found guilty of aiding, inciting or conspiring in any crimes mentioned in the statute. The Yunus administration, however, was unwilling to wait for the tribunal’s verdict. On the same day, it hastily announced a ban on all activities of Awami League, pending the disposal of cases against it.

On May 8, the Yunus administration had created a second three-member tribunal with former High Court judge Nazrul Islam Chowdhury as its chairman. The existing three-member tribunal under Justice Mohammed Ghulam Murtaza Mazumdar has been re-designated as International Crimes Tribunal-I (ICT-I).

The interim government has redefined the objective of the tribunal, established on March 25, 2010. Its original purpose was to prosecute and punish those guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971. A second tribunal was created on March 22, 2012 to expedite pending trials, but the two were merged on September 15, 2015, after the caseload decreased significantly.

The tribunal was essentially created by Sheikh Hasina’s administration (though its conception dates back to her father Mujibur Rahman’s government). Ironically, she now finds herself subject to its scrutiny. There was initial disagreement on whether approximately 1,400 lives lost in police firing during anti-quota protests (15 July to 5 August 2024) constituted genocide. The father of a student belonging to Students Against Discrimination filed a complaint with the ICT against nine people, including deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Professor Asif Nazrul, Advisor on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in the interim government, opined that the July killings qualified for trial by the tribunal. The tribunal had previously ruled that crimes against humanity need not be specific to war.

II

Banning political parties is not new in Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman initiated this practice. Not content with Awami League’s overwhelming majority (307 out of 315 seats) in Bangladesh’s first general election (March 7, 1973), Mujib amended the 1972 Constitution on January 25, 1975, changing the government........

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