Tureen Afroz, a former prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal, has been officially shown arrested in a murder case related to violence during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement protests.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan approved the move on Monday following a hearing of a petition filed by the case’s investigating officer.
Barrister Tureen was initially detained from her home in Uttara on the night of April 7 in an “attempt-to-murder” case concerning a student named Abdul Jabbar, who was injured during last July’s Uprising protests. After being remanded for four days, she was sent to jail on April 12.
Subsequently, CID Inspector Nasir Uddin Sarkar, the case’s investigation officer, filed a petition requesting that Tureen be shown arrested in a separate murder case involving the death of Anwar Hossain Patwary. The court had previously set April 21 for a hearing on the matter.
Tureen appeared in court on the scheduled day. After considering arguments from both sides, the magistrate approved the petition. Tureen was seen smiling in court.
According to court documents, Anwar Hossain was fatally shot at the Mirpur roundabout on August 5 last year, coinciding with the day the Awami League government collapsed. His father, Al Amin Patwary, filed the murder case with the Mirpur Model Police Station.
Tureen Afroz previously served as a key prosecutor in Bangladesh’s war crimes trials, which began in 2010. She played a central role in high-profile cases, including the prosecution of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam.
She was removed from her post on November 11, 2019, by the then-Awami League-led administration following a secret meeting with Muhammad Wahidul Haque, the former DG of both the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Department of Immigration and Passports, during his war crimes investigation.
Tureen had also sought an Awami League nomination ahead of the 2018 general elections.
Following the fall of the Awami League government last year, several legal cases, including those against Tureen, were filed—mirroring actions taken against others with known affiliations to the former ruling party.
