Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has approved every single arrest warrant submitted by the prosecution since August 2024, without rejecting one application, according to a report published by Switzerland-based legal news platform Justice Info. The tribunal's recent decision to issue warrants against two journalists on what the report describes as 'unfounded grounds' has intensified scrutiny over its functioning and adherence to due process.

Prolonged Detention Without Formal Charges

Among the most prominent cases flagged in the report are those of Faruk Khan, a 75-year-old former Bangladesh civil aviation minister, and Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, an 80-year-old former Energy Advisor to ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Both have been held without formal charges for 20 months, according to journalist David Bergman, who authored the report.

The broader pattern, Bergman noted, involves dozens of individuals detained by the tribunal for months without charges, with some reportedly arrested without credible evidence to support the action.

Bail Denials and a Critical Due Process Gap

'These prolonged pre-charge detentions reflect not only the ICT's rules on arrest but also the Tribunal's practice of refusing bail,' Bergman wrote. He pointed to a structural gap: unlike the Rome Statute, the ICT's rules of procedure set no criteria to guide the tribunal in deciding whether bail should be granted. Rule 9(6) merely states that the tribunal 'may review its order relating to the detention of the accused' every three months. In practice, the tribunal has not released a single detained person on bail.

Bergman further highlighted the tribunal's handling of Rule 9(5), which effectively requires the release of any person held for a year without charge — unless 'exceptional circumstances' exist, in which case judges must record their reasons in writing. 'Yet, the Tribunal has not released a single person who has crossed that one-year threshold, nor has it put on record any exceptional circumstances to justify not doing so, as the rules require,' he stated.

Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury's Bail Application Adjourned for Three Months

When Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury — who had by then been in custody for nearly a year and a half — formally applied for bail in April 2026, the tribunal responded by adjourning the hearing on his application for three months, according to Bergman's account.

Journalists Held Without Receiving Charge Details

The report also flags the cases of Bangladeshi journalists Mozammel Babu and Farzana Rupa, arrested on 14 May 2026, who had still not received written copies of the allegations against them more than two months after their arrest.

'This delay is not uncommon. And it is not just a procedural technicality. The right to be informed promptly of the reasons for one's arrest is a foundational due process guarantee, recognised in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in the Rome Statute, and in the Awami League-era rules that the current government chose to weaken,' Bergman noted.

What Comes Next

The report raises broader questions about whether the ICT, established to prosecute crimes from Bangladesh's past, is now operating outside the procedural safeguards it was designed to uphold. International legal observers and human rights groups are likely to apply fresh pressure on Dhaka to address what the report characterises as systemic due process failures at the tribunal.