The promise of justice that once defined Bangladesh’s post-independence identity has turned into its most bitter irony. In 1971, the country’s founders imagined a republic built upon freedom, equality, and human rights. But between August 2024 and September 2025, that dream has been warped into an apparatus of repression—where the nation’s lawyers, once defenders of justice, are being systematically hunted. According to a landmark report by JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF), 849 lawyers have faced persecution in 268 incidents across the country under the Interim Government led by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus. What began as a transitional regime promising rule of law has devolved into a machinery of fear, its victims being those who dare to uphold it.
The JMBF Report 2025, published from Paris and Brussels with support from the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, is an extraordinary document. It details an alarming pattern of politically motivated arrests, fabricated cases, assaults, murders, and professional sanctions. “Lawyers are the guardians of the rule of law. When they are persecuted, democracy itself collapses,” writes Advocate Shahanur Islam, the organization’s founding president. His words encapsulate a nation’s descent into the darkness of authoritarianism, a reality made even more jarring by its perpetrator—a global icon of peace and development.
Behind the statistics lies a calculated campaign. JMBF’s investigation reveals that 88 percent of the 268 recorded incidents and 93 percent of the 849 victims were lawyers affiliated with the Bangladesh Awami League (BAL). “This was not random repression,” the report asserts. “It was a deliberate policy to eliminate pro–Awami League lawyers and silence political opposition through the courts.” Dhaka alone accounted for 123 incidents and 431 victims—half of all documented cases—underscoring how the capital became the nerve centre of legal suppression.
The Interim Government’s weapon of choice was the law itself. Two hundred fabricated cases implicated 721 lawyers, often with overlapping and inflated charges of murder, attempted murder, or sabotage connected to the July 2024 Uprising. JMBF notes that “collective charges were deliberately inflated to maximize repression,” with entire groups of lawyers being indicted for crimes they never committed. A total of 75 incidents led to the imprisonment of 203 lawyers, including 57 arrests and 18 voluntary surrenders—proof that even compliance offered no safety. “Even surrendering was weaponized as a trap for persecution,” reads the report.
The brutality extended far beyond courtroom intimidation. At least four lawyers were murdered during the reporting period—stabbed, beaten, or shot in politically charged attacks that carried unmistakable messages. Advocate Sujon Mia, a former Chhatra League leader, was stabbed to death at a roadside stall in Moulvibazar; Assistant Public Prosecutor Saiful Islam was hacked to death during a protest in Chattogram; Nationalist Lawyers Forum leader Abul Kalam was shot amid post-election unrest in Comilla; and young lawyer Nayan Sheikh was hacked to death by terrorists in Bagerhat. These killings, the report concludes, “underscore a deepening climate of impunity and fear that threatens the independence and safety of Bangladesh’s legal community.”
For those who survived, violence became routine. Between August 2024 and August 2025, 51 lawyers were physically assaulted in 26 recorded attacks. Some were beaten inside courtrooms; others were attacked on the streets or at home. On August 11, 2025, during the bail hearing of a former Chief Justice, pro-government lawyers stormed a Dhaka courtroom and assaulted defense attorney Belayet Hossain. A month earlier, Assistant Attorney General Ibrahim Khalil was attacked in Bhola while attending a public rally. In Natore, lawyer Sadhan Kumar Das and his family were beaten and robbed inside their home. The assaults were not isolated acts of thuggery but, as JMBF observes, “a systematic campaign to dismantle the capacity of lawyers to defend politically targeted clients.”
If the physical terror was meant to silence, the legal system ensured continued subjugation. The Interim Government allegedly weaponized the Bangladesh Bar Council and Bar Association elections to consolidate control. JMBF documented that BNP–Jamaat-supported lawyers forcibly assumed positions in at least 16 bar committees, including the Supreme Court Bar Association, while pro–Awami League candidates were barred from contesting in 44 elections through threats, canceled nominations, and fabricated charges. The report calls this “an assault on democratic governance within legal institutions” and warns that “the autonomy of the bar, the final bastion of justice, is being methodically dismantled.”
The repression’s intensity was most visible in the first three months of the Yunus administration, with 43 and 45 incidents recorded in September and October 2024. Though the frequency of incidents later declined, the number of victims spiked irregularly—105 in November 2024, 153 in February 2025, and 148 in April 2025—indicating “fewer but more devastating crackdowns.” As JMBF notes, “the government’s strategy evolved from broad-based intimidation to selective but highly impactful actions designed to maximize fear within the legal community.”
The campaign did not spare the judiciary. Forty-six judges, including four Chief Justices and ten Appellate Division judges, were persecuted—arrested, forced to resign, or stripped of powers. “Six justices from the Appellate Division, including a Chief Justice, were forced to resign due to pressure from student groups reportedly supported by the current Interim Government,” the report reveals. Two remain in jail on fabricated murder charges linked to the July Uprising. “Judicial independence has been not merely undermined but subjugated,” the report concludes grimly.
The Yunus government’s actions, according to JMBF, flagrantly violate both Bangladesh’s Constitution and its international obligations under the ICCPR, the UDHR, and the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. The report cites constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of profession (Article 40) and judicial independence (Articles 94 and 116A), all of which have been rendered meaningless. “For Muhammad Yunus—a Nobel Peace Laureate celebrated worldwide for his supposed commitment to justice and human dignity—to preside over this persecution is profound hypocrisy,” the report states.
In the words of Chief Adviser Robert Simon, “When lawyers are silenced, the right to a fair trial collapses, and democracy itself is placed in jeopardy.” He calls upon the international community to act, insisting that the persecution of lawyers “is not an internal matter; it is an international concern.” The implications are indeed global. If Bangladesh—once hailed as a model of grassroots democracy—can criminalize its legal defenders under the banner of reform, it sets a chilling precedent for fragile democracies worldwide.
JMBF’s meticulous documentation includes harrowing case studies that turn data into tragedy. It recounts how entire legal chambers were vandalized, licenses canceled, and lawyers expelled from bar associations. It describes how political identity became a crime, with 187 incidents involving 730 victims triggered purely by belief. The remaining 52 incidents arose from professional activity—defending opposition figures or filing rights cases. “Political belief was the single most dominant trigger for persecution,” the report concludes, “demonstrating the government’s deliberate attempt to criminalize political identity.”
This is not the Bangladesh envisioned in 1971, nor the one promised by the Interim Government in 2024. The Yunus administration, which rose to power after the mass uprising that toppled the Awami League, pledged to restore rule of law. Instead, it has redefined it—to mean obedience, silence, and fear. “The Interim Government’s actions amount to a state-engineered conspiracy against the legal profession,” JMBF warns. “This campaign is not only an attack on individuals—it is a direct assault on democracy, the rule of law, and the right to a fair trial.”
The irony is inescapable. Muhammad Yunus, long admired for empowering the poor through microfinance, now presides over a regime that disempowers the very pillars of justice. The same global figure who once spoke of social business and peace is accused of overseeing arbitrary arrests, courtroom violence, and the politicization of bar councils. For many in Bangladesh’s legal community, it is a betrayal not just of ideals but of identity itself.
Yet the report ends not with despair but defiance. “This report is dedicated to the courage of those lawyers who, despite repression, remain steadfast in their defense of justice,” writes Advocate Shahanur Islam. “Their struggle is not only for Bangladesh but for the universal principles of freedom, dignity, and the rule of law.” That resilience, quiet but unbroken, may yet be the country’s last line of defense against the erosion of its soul.
