<h1>Indictment of religious leader and 38 others for lawyer's murder, prompting criminal prosecution; detained ex-PM alleges counsel denial, solitary detention</h1> A Bangladeshi court has indicted a religious figure and 38 others for the alleged murder of a lawyer, effecting formal criminal prosecution and triggering criminal process including arraignment and potential trial. A political party asserts that a detained former prime minister has been denied access to legal counsel and held in solitary confinement, which, if substantiated, implicates rights to legal representation and humane detention standards and may give rise to remedies under criminal procedure and prison law, including applications for counsel access, bail, or habeas corpus. An interim government declared most incidents involving minorities in 2025 to be criminal rather than communal, clarifying investigatory classification and directing criminal law procedures rather than communal or special-protection measures.