A Bangladesh court yesterday ordered at least 70 lawyers linked to the former government to be held in custody for the attempted murder of fellow lawyers during last year’s revolution.All of the detained lawyers are senior advocates and belonged to the Awami League party of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled from power by the student-led uprising in August 2024.“The defendants were accused of attempted murder and assault,” Khorshed Alam, a lawyer representing a private individual who brought the case, told Prothom Alo, a Bengali daily newspaper.He said he had “never seen such an incident of assaulting fellow lawyers in the court premises”, or as many lawyers taken into custody at once. Alam also said the court in the capital Dhaka had granted bail to one of the lawyers, the former president of the bar association, as well as nine women lawyers.Lutfor Rahman, representing at least 10 of the accused, said his clients had been on bail for eight weeks and had appeared before the court to seek an extension.“A lawyer who is an executive committee member of the bar association filed the case against fellow lawyers, just after Sheikh Hasina’s departure,” Rahman said.Hasina fled to old ally India as crowds stormed her palace last year and has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges that include mass murder.Dhaka has requested that India allow Hasina’s extradition to face charges of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government.The mass charges against the advocates follow a separate case in November when Khane Alam, brother of slain lawyer Saiful Islam Alif, filed a case against 58 lawyers.Alif was killed on November 26 when devotees of the outspoken monk Chinmoy Krishna Das went on a rampage after his bail plea was rejected.The monk is accused of allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally in the nation.Chinmoy’s supporters claimed that the case was filed to prevent lawyers from representing him.
