Bangladesh Cannot Execute Its Way to Justice -By Fransiscus Nanga Roka

A verdict of Bangladesh may also be what citizens want to see for justice but in danger of mangling transitional justice into the institutionalized vengeance.

September 15, 2026: Special Tribunal-2 in Dhaka headed by Justice Mohammad Nazrul Islam Chowdhury sentenced seven fugitive Awami League leaders to death for committing crimes against humanity during the July–August 2024 uprising. The guilty verdicts are against Obaidul Quader, Mohammad Ali Arafat, A.F.M. Bahauddin Nasim, Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash, Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, Saddam Hussain and Sheikh Wali Asif Enan. All were tried in absentia.

“Students, protesters and civilians standing up to Sheikh Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian 15-year regime. SHE FLED and her government fell after the following fall 2024 crackdownin which reportedly as many as 1,400 died and thousands who were injured.

The prosecutions have alleged that senior party officials and leaders of the Jubo League and Chhatra League incited, funded and coordinated armed assaults; ordered violent repression; prevented medical care; oversaw internet service cut offs and media suppression, endorsed “shoot-on-sight” action. It found that the defendants were responsible for murders, torture, murder in a conspiracy to commit attempted murder and incitement plus direct command responsibility.

The judgement comes two years after the 1990 uprising and seven months after Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in general elections. It also comes after the November 2025 execution sentence on Sheikh Hasina. As of now 68 have been convicted and 22 sentenced to death in seven atrocity cases; 18 of those condemned are fugitive.

As Bangladesh is testing if and how a state which grew out of the ashes of authoritarian violence can bring perpetrators to justice without replicating authoritarian modes.

The consequences of mass killing must be held accountable, and accountability is key. Political office should never be an alibi to kill citizens. Yet execution after an in absentia trial imposes a special burden upon due process. While publicly funded counsel may provide value, nothing but underfunded government resources can ever meet the full combination of needs for confidentiality in any instructions; effective cross-examination on probative details from a victim who retains discretion over how to testify; access to records of exculpatory evidence withheld from the accused; and afford him or her opportunities to elucidate complex chains of political and operational command.

The right to life (Article 6) and the prohibition on arbitrary detention (Article 9) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights demand that death sentences be subject to exceptional respect for fair-trial guarantees. With the state proceeding to execute those within a legal system that operates without defendants, evidentiary flaws are rendered nonjusticiable by the steamroller of killing. You can reverse a wrongful prison term; you cannot undo a judicially manufactured death wrongfully done.

Note that with respect to 50% of the five Defendants’ assets being confiscated for victim compensation, this is arguably more justifiable in its purpose but still requires tracing, valuation, third-party protection and individual proof. Successfully restoring victims not covering up politically motivated tilts in the civil forfeiture system.

Dhaka must adopt five safeguards. Change of heart: commute all death sentences to imprisonment; accountability for atrocities does not require execution. Second, provide for an automatic and full retrial whenever a fugitive returns voluntarily or is extradited. The third step is to reserve publishing of the full judgment, documentary record and reasoning in accessible Bengali and English. Fourth, allow for independent international monitoring of appeals and re-trials. Fifth, put confiscated assets into an audited victims fund administered jointly by survivors, civil society and independent fiduciaries not political officials.

Those masterminding 2024 must be tried in Bangladesh And, as much as they deserve justice, it has to be more law-abiding and win in the long run than the regime that killed them. If not, the gallows will not end the age of authoritarianism; they will inherit it.

Fransiscus Nanga Roka

Faculty of Law University 17 August 1945 Surabaya and Managing Partner Law Firm Victorious Indonesia