The Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order 1972 was promulgated to bring to trial those Bangladeshis who collaborated with and aided the Pakistan Armed forces during the Liberation War of 1971.^[32] There are conflicting accounts of the number of persons brought to trial under the 1972 Collaborators Order, ranging between 10,000 and 40,000.^[33] At the time, the trials were considered suspect by local and external observers, as they appear to have been used for carrying out political vendettas. R. MacLennan, a British MP who was an observer at the trials, said, "In the dock, the defendants are scarcely more pitiable than the succession of confused prosecution witnesses driven (by the 88-year old defence counsel) to admit that they, too, served the Pakistan government but are now ready to swear blind that their real loyalty was to the government of Bangladesh in exile."^[34]
The Bangladeshi government issued a general amnesty on November 30, 1973, applying to all persons except those who were punished or accused of rape, murder, attempted murder, or arson.^[33] The Collaborators Order 1972 was revoked in 1975.
The International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 was promulgated to prosecute any persons, irrespective of nationality, accused of committing crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, "violations of any humanitarian rules applicable in armed conflicts laid out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949" and "any other crimes under international law".^[35] Detainees held under the 1972 Collaborators order, who were not released by the general amnesty of 1973, were going to be tried under this Act. However, no trials were held. All activities related to the Act ceased after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
There are no known instances of criminal investigations or trials outside of Bangladesh of alleged perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 war. Initial steps were taken by the Greater London Metropolitan Police to investigate individuals resident in the United Kingdom who were alleged to have committed war crimes, as shown in a Channel 4 documentary film aired in 1995. To date, no charges have been brought against these individuals.^[36]