Notorious Bangladesh police unit received spy training in the UK

Regardless of US sanctions towards the Speedy Motion Battalion, members went to Britain to obtain mass surveillance coaching.

The RAB has been accused of extrajudicial killings, torture and compelled disappearances [Reuters/Andrew Biraj]

A number of members of a Bangladesh anti-crime unit accused of human rights abuses travelled to the UK in 2022 to obtain safety coaching, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) studies.

Members of the Speedy Motion Battalion (RAB), a regulation enforcement unit dubbed a “dying squad” by human rights organisations, went to the UK in Could and October 2022 for a cybersecurity course and coaching on the usage of mass surveillance gear.

The instruction by British regulation enforcement consultants occurred regardless of the RAB being sanctioned by america for its alleged involvement in human rights abuses reminiscent of extrajudicial killings and compelled disappearances.

Information of the RAB’s UK coaching led Al Jazeera’s I-Unit to find that the UK had reversed a choice to affix the US in imposing sanctions on the police unit in 2021. It's unclear why the UK authorities determined to not sanction the RAB.

If it had, the 2022 coaching journeys would possible haven't occurred, however the sanctions had been inexplicably not carried out by the UK regardless of the US doing so.

“RAB is popping to US accomplice international locations to get the sort of coaching and instruments and sources that they have to be a extra ‘efficient’ pressure again at house in Bangladesh. And by efficient, I imply that they’re going to additional have interaction in repression in Bangladesh,” stated Amanda Strayer, supervising workers lawyer for accountability at human rights NGO Human Rights First.

The I-Unit approached the UK International, Commonwealth and Improvement Workplace to ask about its information of those trainings, presenting a doc that the FCDO responded had “by no means been shared with the Excessive Fee and the UK Authorities was not conscious of it”.

Based on the doc reviewed by Al Jazeera and offered to the FCDO, the British Excessive Fee in Dhaka was knowledgeable of the RAB members’ journeys by means of communication from the Bangladeshi overseas ministry.

Cybersecurity and surveillance

In Could, a minimum of 5 officers travelled to the UK to obtain a Cyber Incident Response Administration Basis Coaching Course and a Cyber Safety Practitioner Coaching Course from Irish firm IT Governance, in accordance with the paperwork.

The coaching befell over a number of days and value greater than 15,000 euros ($15,800) in complete, an bill despatched to RAB exhibits.

In October, a minimum of six members acquired coaching within the use of a backpack IMSI catcher, a conveyable mass surveillance device that acts as a mini-mobile telephone tower and may intercept telephone calls and textual content messages.

“They’re used to intercept communications … which principally prohibits any sort of freedom of speech,” Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director, advised Al Jazeera. “In Bangladesh, folks have died in custody for Fb posts they made.”

“This highlights the actual danger that the UK, the EU, and Canada are going through after they don’t take part on these types of sanctions, as a result of the entities and the people that had been sanctioned by the US will flip to their jurisdiction and can discover the sorts of instruments and coaching and sources,” Strayer advised Al Jazeera.

“Possibly they will now not get it from the US, however they will get it from the EU they usually can get it from the UK. And so they can take these again to their nation to additional their repression there.”

Caught within the crossfire?

The Speedy Motion Battalion was based in 2004 and has since been linked to many abuses in studies by human rights organisations.

When the US sanctioned the RAB and 7 present and former high-ranking officers in December 2021, it cited proof the battalion was concerned in a minimum of 600 compelled disappearances since 2009 and greater than 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.

The Bangladesh authorities denied the accusations, saying the deaths had been the results of folks being caught in so-called “crossfires” throughout shootouts between RAB officers and prison gangs.

In response to questions requested by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, the UK FCDO stated: “The UK is a number one advocate for human rights world wide and we recurrently elevate human rights points instantly with different governments, together with Bangladesh”.

IT Governance has not responded to Al Jazeera’s questions on offering coaching to the RAB by the point this text was printed.

The RAB has additionally not responded to any questions requested by Al Jazeera.