The government has amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, empowering the International Crimes Tribunal to ban any political party and approved the draft of the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 making provisions to ban individuals or entities.
The president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, promulgated the International Crimes (Tribunals) (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2025 on Saturday empowering the tribunal to ban any political party, and cancel registration and confiscate assets of the party on charge of crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes.
The council of advisers approved the ordinance Saturday night at its emergency meeting that also banned all activities of the Awami League until the completion of trial of the party and its leaders by the tribunal.
The government made the decisions in the face of protests mainly launched by National Citizen Party leaders Nahid Islam and Hasnat Abdullah, who played key roles in the student-led mass uprising that ousted the Sheikh Hasina-led AL regime on August 5, 2024.
The ordinance inserts section 20B into the act for the punishment of any organisation.
The new section reads, 鈥樷�f it appears to the tribunal that any organisation has committed, ordered, attempted, aided, incited, abetted, conspired, facilitated or otherwise assisted the commission of any of the crimes under sub-section (2) of section 3 of this act, the tribunal shall have the power to suspend or prohibit its activities, ban the organisation, suspend or cancel its registration or license, and confiscate its property.鈥�
The ordinance also redefines 鈥榦rganisation鈥� to include 鈥榓ny political party, or any entity subordinate to, or affiliated to, or associated with such a party, or any group of individuals which, in the opinion of the tribunal, propagates, supports, endorses, facilitates, or engages in the activities of such a party or entity.鈥�
In the latest development, the cabinet on Sunday approved the draft of the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 making provisions to ban individuals or entities involved in terrorist acts and their activities, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha.
The cabinet gave made the approval to the draft ordinance at a special meeting with chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in the chair at his official residence Jamuna, said a press release issued by the chief adviser鈥檚 Press Wing.
According to the summary of the meeting, the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 was enacted to make provisions for the prevention of certain terrorist acts and ensure their effective punishment.
To meet the purpose of the act, the government may, on the basis of reasonable grounds that any person or entity is involved in terrorist acts, list such person in the schedule of the 2009 act or declare the entity prohibited and list it in the schedule by issuing official gazette notifications.
There is, however, no provision in the existing law regarding the prohibition of the activities of any entity.
Since the matter needs to be clarified, it is appropriate and necessary to further amend the 2009 act to make it time-befitting.
In such context, the 2009 act has been amended to prohibit the activities of any entity, make necessary adaptations and include provisions prohibiting the promotion in online and social media.
The amended law may be issued in the form of an ordinance tomorrow, the press release said.
ICT prosecutor Gazi Monowar Hossain Tamim, in a video message, said that the Awami League government amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act in 2013 to enable the prosecution of individuals and organisations for crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the War of Independence.
鈥楬owever, the law lacked provisions for punishing organisations involved in such crimes. The latest ordinance addresses that gap by allowing trials and punishment of organisations under the Act,鈥� he said.
Tamim said that, despite the absence of explicit punitive provisions earlier, there had been no legal barrier to trying organisations. 鈥極n behalf of the prosecution, I welcome this move, even though other laws already provide mechanisms to ban or punish political parties for criminal activities,鈥� he added.
On October 2, 2024, a complaint was filed with the International Crimes Tribunal seeking a 10-year ban on the Awami League-led alliance, accusing them of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during the student-led mass uprising.
The first-ever complaint against AL along with its allies for committing crimes against humanity during the student-led mass uprising was filed by Bobby Hajjaj, the chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement.
The complaint specifically named key alliance partners, including Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League, the Jatiya Party-JP led by Anwar Hossain Manju, Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal led by Dilip Barua, Workers鈥� Party of Bangladesh led by Rashed Khan Menon, and the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, among others. The coalition is accused of orchestrating widespread violence and violations of international humanitarian law.
The complaint alleged that the law enforcement agencies that acted on orders from the alliance were instructed to 鈥榮hoot on sight鈥�. The orders from the alliance led to the deaths of 1,581 people, most of them students during the student-mass uprising, the complaint alleged.
The student-led movement intensified on July 16 and led to the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Bobby Hajjaj requested the tribunal to hold the alliance leaders accountable for their decision to impose a curfew on July 19, during which security forces were allegedly given orders to shoot on sight.
According to the ICT prosecution, the reconstituted tribunal has so far issued arrest warrants against 141 individuals in connection with 22 cases relating to the mass uprising, enforced disappearances, and the attack on Hefazat rally at Shapla Chattar. The Investigation Agency is yet to file any formal charge against the accused persons. Of the 141 individuals, 54 accused have been arrested so far, said the prosecution.
The prosecution said that investigators are currently probing 39 cases selected from a pool of 339 complaints.
In November 2024, the government promulgated the first amendment to the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973, expanding the definition of crimes against humanity to include enforced disappearances and five other offences.
The five additional crimes include gender-based violence, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and enforced sterilisation, particularly when these five acts are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, or as part of systematic persecution on political, racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious grounds, regardless of whether they violate the domestic laws of the country where they are committed.
The government, however, then backtracked from empowering the ICT to punish or suspend political parties for the crimes following objections from legal experts.
