Bangladesh war crimes tribunal issues fresh warrants for 3 journalists over press conference questions

New Delhi, August 18, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Bangladeshi authorities to drop their new crimes against humanity case against journalists Shyamal Dutta, Mozammel Babu, and Farzana Rupa, and stop criminalizing news reporting. 

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday ordered prison authorities to produce the journalists, who have been detained since 2024 on separate charges, before the domestic war crimes court on August 24, according to news reports.

Prosecutors allege the journalists incited the suppression of student demonstrators during a July 2024 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. They say that the journalists asked Hasina provocative questions at a press conference on July 14, 2024 that led her to make disparaging remarks about the demonstrators before launching a bloody crackdown, the reports said. 

“Launching a crimes-against-humanity case against journalists Shyamal Dutta, Mozammel Babu, and Farzana Rupa for simply asking questions at a press conference is outrageous and deeply troubling,” said Kunal Majumder, CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator. “Editorial decisions may be partisan or ethically questionable, but they cannot be criminalized. Criminalizing editorial judgment sets a dangerous precedent and undermines Bangladesh’s reputation as a democracy. Authorities must immediately release the three journalists and drop the charges.”

Babu, founder and former editor-in-chief of the privately owned Ekattor TV, and Rupa, the channel’s former principal correspondent, were arrested in May this year in a separate ICT case over the 2013 security crackdown on Hefajat-e-Islam activists at Shapla Chatta. They were named in a formal charge sheet on July 27 alongside Hasina and 39 others. 

Dutta, editor of the privately owned Bhorer Kagoj and a former general secretary of the Jatiya Press Club, has been detained since September 2024 and faces multiple murder cases in retaliation for his journalism.

If found guilty, the journalists could face the death penalty because the ICT, which was founded in 2010 under a 1973 law to try crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War, does not have sentencing guidelines for specific offenses.

During the Awami League government, Hasina used the tribunal to prosecute her political opponents. Since the political transition of August 2024, the interim government and new administration of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who was sworn in on February 17, have reconstituted the tribunal and amended the law to prosecute figures linked to the Awami League government, including Hasina.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Law and the Office of the Chief Prosecutor did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.