‘Beaten for spending more than a minute in bathroom,’ ex-detainee tells tribunal

A victim of alleged enforced disappearance told Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday that he was beaten for spending more than one minute in the bathroom, subjected to electric shocks on his genitals, and threatened with death while being held in a secret interrogation facility run by security forces.

Mahmudul Hasan, testifying in a crimes against humanity case over alleged disappearances at the Rapid Action Battalion's (RAB) Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) Cell, described what he said were weeks of brutal abuse during his detention in 2016.

Hasan told the tribunal that detainees were given just one minute to use a bathroom whose door was intentionally left ajar for surveillance. Any delay, he said, resulted in guards storming in and beating him.

He alleged that interrogators repeatedly administered electric shocks to his ears and genitals, causing bleeding and severe pain. "Blood came out through my urinary passage and it burned every day," Hasan told the court.

According to his testimony, interrogators pressured him to confess links to militancy, promising release in exchange for a confession. He said they also showed him photographs of mutilated bodies and warned that he would meet the same fate if he refused.

Hasan further testified that he was kept blindfolded and handcuffed to iron bars with his hands tied behind his back for extended periods, preventing him from lying down or sleeping. Continuous restraints left permanent injuries on his wrists, while prolonged isolation and abuse caused severe physical and psychological suffering, he said.

The testimony was recorded by a three-member bench of International Crimes Tribunal-1 led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Majumdar. Ten detained defendants, among 17 accused including current and former military officers, were present in court during the proceedings.

Hasan said he was abducted from a rented residence in Bagerhat on June 20, 2016, by plainclothes men identifying themselves as law enforcement personnel before being taken to the secret detention facility.