Bangladesh ex-police chief faces crimes against humanity charges

Bangladesh's former police chief appeared in court Wednesday accused of overseeing a deadly crackdown in a failed bid to suppress the August revolution that toppled the regime of Sheikh Hasina.

Former police inspector general Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun was flanked by serving officers as he was led into court, where prosecutors alleged he was responsible for overseeing massacres, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Eight defendants appeared in court in Dhaka, including Ziaul Ahsan, a former commander of the feared Rapid Action Battalion paramilitary force.

Chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam, from Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, said the eight men had committed crimes "that even devils dare not do".

Islam said the former police chief was the "commander of all atrocities carried out against the student protesters", he told reporters outside court after the hearing.

Dozens of Hasina's allies have been taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that led to her ouster.

Islam presented a detailed list of crimes allegedly committed by Ahsan that included extrajudicial killings, the dismembering of bodies, and the surveillance of government critics.

The prosecution said he was also responsible for shutting down the internet during the uprising.

Ahsan denied all charges.

"I was not in charge of the secret detention centre and never surveilled people," he told the court.

Former lower-ranking officers in court were accused of killing protesters and burning their corpses to destroy the evidence.

One was accused of shooting Shaikh Ashabul Yamin -- a student protester whose death was captured on a video shared widely on social media, showing his body being hurled from the top of a police armoured vehicle.

The defendants listened to the charges but were not asked yet to give a plea, sitting in silence through most of the hearing.

But one defendant, Majharul Islam, former chief of Dhaka's Gulshan Police Station, broke into tears and raised his hands in prayer above his head.

"I supported the protests, please save me," he begged the court.

The court gave prosecutors until December 19 to complete their investigation report, and the accused remain in custody.

Hasina's 15-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

The court has also issued an arrest warrant for Hasina for alleged  "massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity", but she fled to old ally India by helicopter on August 5, where she remains a fugitive in exile.

The court hearing follows similar charges levelled at former top government officials on Monday, including 11 ex-minsters.