Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) can reveal that the United Kingdom was set to impose sanctions on Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism Speedy Motion Battalion (RAB) in 2021 however held again for causes that stay unexplained.
The US applied sanctions towards the RAB and 7 high-ranking present and former members on December 10, 2021, for alleged human rights violations comparable to torture and compelled disappearances. The RAB has been likened to a “loss of life squad” by a number of human rights organisations.
However the UK determined on the final minute to not implement sanctions that had been to coincide with the restrictions by its closest ally. Al Jazeera was capable of verify with a number of sources who mentioned they heard accounts of the plan being pulled on the eleventh hour.
UK barrister Toby Cadman, a member of the crew that submitted requests for sanctions towards the RAB to the US and UK governments, instructed Al Jazeera the very fact the restrictions weren’t applied got here as a shock for these concerned.
“I filed the request for sanctions and while I’m not able to debate the substance, I can verify that I mentioned the request with the Overseas, Commonwealth & Growth Workplace [FCDO],” Cadman mentioned, referring to the UK Overseas Workplace.
“Having labored on each the US and UK request for sanctions, I used to be strongly of the view {that a} coordinated response was essential within the circumstances,” Cadman mentioned. “Our submitting within the UK focused political officers and people within the safety sector.”
“It was actually my place that the UK would concern mirror sanctions in coordination with the US. I used to be extraordinarily disillusioned once they failed to take action.”
‘Very stunning’
Cadman’s disappointment was shared by Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, liaison officer on the Asian Human Rights Fee who supplied the proof of human rights abuses by the RAB connected to the sanctions requests to the US and the UK.
“The expectation was that the UK and US, being sturdy allies, that they’d be collaborating with one another by saying back-to-back sanctions. The US did that on the tenth of December, the UK didn’t,” Ashrafuzzaman mentioned.
“That was very stunning to us.”
Cadman conceded that requests for sanctions, such because the one he and his crew submitted, don’t at all times come to fruition, however that there’s normally a cause offered.
“It typically pertains to a scarcity of an evidential foundation and, after all, if there was one thing missing it could be regular for the FCDO to hunt additional data or clarification,” Cadman mentioned.
However he added on this case no clarifications or explanations had been supplied by the Overseas Workplace.
Ashrafuzzaman famous the documentation collected by his crew was utilized by the US as justification for sanctions towards the RAB.
“The proof was despatched to the US state division and treasury, it was utilized by the US. That proof was despatched to the UK as effectively.”
Gross human rights abuses
The US used that proof to sanction the RAB as an organisation and 7 present and former high-ranking officers from the unit underneath the International Magnitsky Act, citing proof of alleged involvement in at the least 600 compelled disappearances since 2009 and greater than 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.
The Bangladesh authorities has denied these accusations, saying the deaths had been the results of so-called “crossfires” – not abstract executions – with the “felony” being killed when he obtained caught within the crossfire between his gang and the RAB.
Underneath the International Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which was created to penalise human rights abusers by freezing their belongings, American corporations and people are prohibited from doing enterprise with these sanctioned.
In response to Amanda Strayer, supervising workers lawyer for accountability with human rights organisation Human Rights First, the truth that the British authorities didn’t undergo with the sanctions was “stunning and disappointing”.
“Lots of instances, when the US authorities is contemplating sanctioning somebody or an entity like this, they might attain out to the UK, or Canada and the European Union to see if there’s curiosity in taking joint motion collectively,” Strayer mentioned.
“The truth that at the moment and nonetheless now, a 12 months later, these jurisdictions haven’t taken any motion, it’s very disappointing.”
In response to questions by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, the UK Overseas Workplace didn’t dispute the claims, nor did it clarify the explanations for the last-minute about-turn.
It said that: “The UK is a number one advocate for human rights around the globe and we frequently elevate human rights points immediately with different governments, together with Bangladesh”.