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BBC News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Sheikh Hasina authorised deadly Bangladesh crackdown, leaked audio suggests
A deadly crackdown on student-led protests in Bangladesh last year was authorised by then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, according to audio of one of her phone calls verified by BBC the audio, which was leaked online in March, Hasina says she authorised her security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters and that "wherever they find [them], they will shoot".Prosecutors in Bangladesh plan to use the recording as crucial evidence against Hasina, who is being tried in absentia at a special tribunal for crimes against to 1,400 people died in last summer's unrest, according to UN investigators. Hasina, who fled to India, and her party reject all charges against her. A spokesperson for her Awami League party denied the tape showed any "unlawful intention" of "disproportionate response". The leaked audio of Hasina's conversation with an unidentified senior government official is the most significant evidence yet that she gave direct authorisation to shoot anti-government protesters, tens of thousands of whom had taken to the streets by last protests began against civil service job quotas for relatives of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence and escalated into a mass movement that ousted Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years. It the worst violence Bangladesh had seen since the 1971 of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter before crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. The BBC World Service investigation established previously unreported details about a police massacre of protesters in the capital - including a much higher death toll. Hasina was at her residence in Dhaka, known as the Ganabhaban, for the duration of the call which took place on 18 July, a source with knowledge of the leaked audio told the was a crucial moment in the demonstrations. Security officials were responding to public outrage at police killings of protesters captured on video and shared across social media. In the days following the call, military-grade rifles were deployed and used across Dhaka, according to police documents seen by the recording the BBC examined is one of numerous calls involving Sheikh Hasina that were made by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), a Bangladeshi government body responsible for monitoring audio of the call was leaked in early March this year - it's unclear by whom. Since the protests, numerous clips of Hasina's calls have appeared online, many of them leaked 18 July recording was voice matched by the Criminal Investigation Department in the Bangladesh Police with known audio of Sheikh Hasina's BBC conducted its own independent verification by sharing the recording with audio forensics experts Earshot, who found no evidence the speech had been edited or manipulated and said it was highly unlikely to have been synthetically said the leaked recording was likely to have been taken in a room with the phone call played back on a speaker, due to the presence of distinctive telephonic frequencies and background sounds. Earshot identified Electric Network Frequency (ENF) throughout the recording, a frequency that's often present in audio recordings due to interference between a recording device and mains-powered equipment, an indicator that the audio has not been also analysed Sheikh Hasina's speech – the rhythm, intonation and breath sounds - and identified consistent noise floor levels, finding no evidence of synthetic artefacts in the audio."The recordings are critical for establishing her role, they are clear and have been properly authenticated, and are supported by other evidence," British international human rights barrister Toby Cadman told the BBC. He is advising Bangladesh's International Criminal Tribunal (ICT), the court hearing cases against Hasina and Awami League spokesperson said: "We cannot confirm whether the tape recording referenced by the BBC is authentic." Alongside Sheikh Hasina, former government and police officials have been implicated in the killings of protesters. A total of 203 individuals have been indicted by the ICT, of whom 73 are in Eye analysed and verified hundreds of videos, images and documents detailing police attacks against demonstrators across 36 investigation found that in one incident on 5 August in Jatrabari, a busy Dhaka neighbourhood, at least 52 people were killed by police, making it one of the worst incidents of police violence in Bangladesh's history. Initial reports at the time suggested 30 dead in Jatrabari on that day. Outside the UK, watch on YouTube The BBC investigation uncovered new details about how the massacre started and eyewitness footage, CCTV and drone imagery, BBC Eye established that police opened fire indiscriminately on protesters immediately after army personnel, who were separating the police from the protesters, vacated the more than 30 minutes the police shot at fleeing protesters as they tried to escape down alleyways and on the highway, before the police officers sought shelter in a nearby army camp. At least six police officers were also killed as protesters retaliated hours later, setting fire to the Jatrabari police station.A spokesperson for the Bangladesh Police told the BBC that 60 police officers had been arrested for their role in the violence in July and August last year."There were regrettable incidents in which certain members of the then police force engaged in excessive use of force," said the spokesperson. "Bangladesh Police has launched thorough and impartial investigations." Sheikh Hasina's trial began last month. She has been charged with committing crimes against humanity, including issuing orders that led to mass killings and targeted violence against civilians, as well as incitement, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass has so far failed to comply with a Bangladeshi request for her extradition. It is unlikely that Hasina will return to the country for the trial, Mr Cadman Awami League maintains that its leaders are not liable for the force used against protesters."The Awami League categorically denies and rejects claims that some of its senior leaders, including the prime minister herself, were personally responsible for or directed the use of lethal force against crowds," a spokesperson for the party said."The decisions made by senior government officials were proportionate in nature, made in good faith and intended to minimise the loss of life."The party has rejected the findings of United Nations investigators, who said they had found reasonable grounds to believe the actions of Hasina and her government could amount to crimes against BBC approached the Bangladesh army for comment but did not receive a Hasina's fall, Bangladesh has been ruled by an interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad government is preparing for national elections. It's unclear if the Awami League will be allowed to contest the vote.
Washington Post
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN
WASHINGTON — The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries. The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador's mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
Times
25-05-2025
- Times
Cambodian politicians ‘profit from online scammers'
Politicians in Cambodia are supporting and profiting from criminal online scam centres that use trafficked forced labour to trick lonely people in Europe and America, a new report has shown. Its findings support those of United Nations investigators who recently said scam centres continue to grow and spread 'like a cancer' — despite the recent closure of sites in Myanmar and public promises to crack down on them by southeast Asian governments — putting at risk both the people forced to work there and the victims they cheat. 'Cambodia is likely the absolute global epicentre of next-gen transnational fraud in 2025 and is certainly the country most primed for explosive growth going forward,' says the report by the Humanity Research Consultancy (HRC), which campaigns against human trafficking. 'Cambodian state institutions systematically and insidiously support and protect the criminal networks involved in transnational fraud and related human trafficking.' The country is thought to generate as much as $19 billion a year from the scamming industry, equivalent to about 60 per cent of its GDP, eclipsing by far its largest formal sector, the garment and textiles industry. The 'scamdemic' emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic when casinos, deprived of gamblers, encouraged their criminal operators to switch to online scams. They recruited people from across the world, some of whom work willingly and others who are hoodwinked with promises of respectable work and forced into staying with threats and physical violence. Many scam operations engage in what is called 'pig butchering', where lowly operatives, often victims of human trafficking, 'fatten up' their marks by winning their confidence, only for them to be passed on to more senior criminals for 'slaughter', meaning transfers of money, often in the form of untraceable cryptocurrency. Often, the initial approach is made on dating apps, by scammers impersonating available young women to get the phone numbers of lonely western men. 'Just about anyone in the world could fall victim to either the human trafficking or the online scams carried out through these criminal hubs,' said Jürgen Stock, who was the secretary-general of Interpol from 2014-24. Cambodia is likely to host the largest share of the industry, which is concentrated in southeast Asia — Myanmar and Laos also participate significantly. The 'cybercriminal labour force' in the region is estimated to be more than 350,000 people, and generates as much as an estimated $75 billion a year — half of the total economic activity in those host countries. According to the HRC report, by Jacob Sims, a security expert affiliated with Harvard University, senior members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party are deeply involved in the scam industry. Hun To, a cousin of the prime minister, Hun Manet, sits on the board of directors of Huione Group, whose illicit online marketplaces are 'a key piece of infrastructure driving cyber-enabled fraud', according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The deputy prime and interior minister, Sar Sokha, was an investor in the construction of one of the largest scam compounds in the country. 'It spreads like a cancer,' Benedikt Hofmann of UNODC said. 'Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.' A Ministry of Interior spokesman, Touch Sokhak, rejected the report, calling it politically motivated, while asserting that it was 'a tool to blame smaller countries that are technologically weak'.
