The International Crimes Tribunal prosecution has asked Meta for data on former army major Mozaffar Hossain’s suspicious Facebook contacts, 45 years after he was accused of involvement in former president Ziaur Rahman’s assassination.
The inquiry focuses on his conversations with several accounts using images of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
The 77-year-old fugitive was arrested in Banani on Jul 15 and handed to military police in Dhaka Cantonment the following day.
On Jul 23, the tribunal showed him arrested in a crimes-against-humanity case and allowed his interrogation.
Digital forensics expert and prosecutor Tanvir Hassan Zoha said investigators last week submitted a request through Facebook’s designated form for 12 categories of data, including subscriber information, emails, phone numbers, login history, IP addresses, location data and deleted messages.
“We received a digital forensic report of Mozaffar’s conversations with coded Bangla IDs carrying images of Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed Joy. These IDs may be fake or genuine. We have approached Meta to establish which,” Zoha said.
The data could also clarify whether Mozaffar communicated with Hasina at Ganabhaban on Jul 24, he said.
Zoha said contact with Meta had been successfully established and the company was reviewing the request. As the data dates to 2024, Meta could take three to six months to provide it, he said.
The prosecution also found accounts using images of former military officers and national leaders that communicated with Mozaffar. Open-source intelligence suggests people behind some accounts were editors or administrators of the Awami League’s main page.
Location data could help investigators map the network behind the accounts, prosecutors said.
Zoha said login histories from four devices had been recovered through one of Mozaffar’s email addresses. Analysing the digital footprints could reveal when he returned to Bangladesh and what other fake accounts he used.
Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam said Mozaffar would be questioned if necessary based on information from ongoing investigations.
“For now, interrogation has been kept in reserve. If cross-examination becomes necessary after matching it with other investigations, that step will be taken,” he said.
