A court has ruled that a migrant from Bangladesh cannot be deported because he would be thrown in jail for 20 years for bomb charges.
The migrant won his asylum case and will remain in Britain after successfully arguing that he would be sent to jail for 20 years in his home country on ‘bogus’ explosives charges.
He insisted the allegations were false and ‘politically motivated’ and that the previous regime in Bangladesh persecuted him because he supported the opposing party.
The man has not been named, but seven men were previously charged and convicted for making explosives.
Ahsan Habib, Mostafa Kamal, Mehedi Hasan, Rabiul Islam, Monowar Hossain, Jamirul Islam, and Moynul Islam were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Home Office accepted the bomb charges were probably bogus but said he could be deported without any risk of being imprisoned.
However a court ruled in his favour and he was allowed to remain in the UK.
According to local reports, the man and his group were part of Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student wing of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami political party.
Protesters gathered in the streets of Dhaka following the death of an activist in 2025
Supporters pictured blocking the Shahbagh Square in Dhaka, a major intersection and cultural hub
In 2024, student-led protests escalated into a nationwide uprising and eventually brought an end to the reign of the country’s long-term authoritarian leader Sheikh Hasina.
On August 5, 2024, Hasina resigned and fled to India and her political party – the Awami League – lost power.
According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests in 2024, with thousands more injured – most of them by gunfire from security forces – in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.
Last year, Hasina was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, which would be enacted if she ever returns to the country from her exile in India.
In December last year, protesters took to the streets again following the death of a youth leader, as mobs set fire to newspaper offices and left journalists trapped inside the burning buildings.
Two major newspaper offices, Britain’s Daily Star and the Bengali-language Prothom Alo, were set on fire as protesters accused the publications of favouring India, where Hasina had taken refuge.
Today, Bangladeshis took to the polls for the first time since Hasina was overthrown, with the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, the current frontrunners.
The migrant, who was referred to as MM, said he was a ‘political leader’ of Islami Chhatra Shibir and claimed the Awami League made false criminal charges against him.
The Prothom Alo newspaper office in Karwan Bazar was ablaze after protesters set it on fire in December
People gather to look at the building of the vandalised office of Prothom Alo newspaper, following the death of Sharif Osman Hadi
People seen at the entrance of the Daily Star building as it burned on Friday. Critics accused the Daily Star and Prothom Alo of favouring India, where Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister has taken refuge since fleeing Dhaka after the 2024 uprising
He said the criminal case was lodged against him while he was away in Cyprus in 2015.
The Bangladeshi man provided documents proving his sentence and the charges to the tribunal, which were verified as genuine.
Upper Tribunal Judge Madeleine Reeds said: ‘[It was] confirmed that the [migrant’s] case relied upon the preserved finding that there were genuinely issued court documents demonstrating that he had been convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and that there were two further outstanding arrest warrants and the question was what risk the [he] faced on return in light of having been convicted in absentia and considering the country information.
‘He submitted that the Home Office’s approach to the case was difficult to follow in light of the preserved finding that the documents were genuinely issued documents from the court that were politically motivated and false rather than based on any criminal conduct.
‘Those documents having been found to be genuine, is therefore determinative of the appeal in MM’s favour.
‘He submitted that the Home Office’s submissions do not engage with the reality as the documents now demonstrate conclusive evidence not only that he faces proceedings but there is a sentence of imprisonment.’
However the Home Office argued that a change in regime in Bangladesh, since Hasina and the Awami League were removed from power, meant that the migrant would no longer face prosecution in his home country.
Judge Reeds said: ‘Mr Wain submitted that the preserved finding that the documents from the court were genuinely issued did not mean that MM would be of interest to the authorities because there now was a change in government.
‘He submitted that the Awami League no longer held power and MM had not shown that the authorities were interested in him. MM has also not contacted his party in Bangladesh to see if he could obtain the withdrawal of the charges.’
However she concluded that the migrant could still be at risk because the Awami League had not been completely ‘wiped out’.
Military personnel stood guard in Dhaka amid the violent protests, which saw several buildings in the capital set on fire, according to authorities
She said: ‘The Awami League is not wiped out and as stated in the report, state bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies also still contain vast pro Awami league elements appointed by the previous regime and that the reforms will take years to consolidate.’
Judge Reeds said that a report from the Bangladeshi government suggests that there is still instability that could cause the man to be arrested.
She said: ‘In fact the report did refer to the intergovernmental commissions reviewing all politically motivated cases lodged during the previous regime but concluded that the situation is ‘challenging’ owing to the levels of institutional corruption and the sheer volume of sham cases and that following the events in February 2025, this has accelerated the process investigating pending cases and leading to a number of innocent people being arrested, including those accused under the previous government or in the aftermath of the protests.
‘I accept the content of the report in this respect and that the [migrant’s] cases remain live despite the change in government and that there remains instability at the current time.
‘Whilst my assessment is that there is credible evidence that politically motivated cases are being withdrawn none of the material referred to relates to cases that involve a conviction as here.’
She added: ‘I therefore conclude that there is a reasonable likelihood on these particular facts of the [migrant] being detained for what both parties accept are politically motivated charges and conviction and which are not legitimate and do not reflect any wrongdoing by [him].
‘Whilst they relate to events from the previous regime, the conviction remains and the sentence is a long one and on the evidence as it stands, there is a real risk that he will not be released on bail, unlike those who have outstanding charges which may be reviewed.’