Al Jazeera Investigates

When Bangladeshi’s woke up on the morning of August 5, 2024 no one knew what would happen. Hundreds of thousands of people were planning to march to the capital. But security forces still loyal to Sheikh Hasina were determined to keep her in power no matter the cost. Until the final minutes, her fate remained uncertain. The last day of the uprising would be the deadliest and most dramatic.&n...

With the internet shut off, Sheikh Hasina attempts to claw back the narrative. But as the uprising reaches its final days, it becomes clear that her cruel crackdown on the students has backfired. There’s no turning back. A fateful decision from Bangladesh’s most powerful institution puts Sheikh Hasina’s government on a glidepath to collapse.  Episode Credits: This episode wa...

Abu Sayed’s death super charges the uprising and Sheikh Hasina is determined to put a stop to it. In this episode, we’ll hear Hasina, on exclusively obtained recordings, authorizing deadly force. As the situation worsens she makes two fateful decisions. She calls the Army in and turns the internet off .   Episode Credits: This episode was written and produced by me, Kevin Hir...

Abu Sayed, a young man from a poor village, is shot dead while standing up to police in front of his university campus. With thousands watching the tragic scene on livestream, he becomes instantly viewed as a martyr. Sheikh Hasina, whose political career was grounded in the martyrdom of her famous father, scrambles to change the narrative and help turn Abu Sayed from a hero into a villain.  ...

After 15 years in office, Sheikh Hasina’s stranglehold on power starts to loosen.   A grievous insult leveled at student protesters catapults a long simmering dispute over government jobs into a full fledged rebellion. When students take to the streets, the government deploys armed gangs to beat them into submission. It’s a tactic that has worked in the past, but this time th...

On October 9th, 2024 the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) hosted a Westminster screening of @AJIunit's newest documentary Gaza . The film examines evidence of possible Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza using images and videos posted by Israeli soldiers themselves. A panel discussion followed the screening with experts answering questions about if and how International Law...

Al Jazeera Investigates/The Take  A new @AJIunit documentary investigates thousands of posts from social media documenting war crimes by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. This interview with the film's director, Richard Sanders, examines what this database exposes about the last year of war – what’s being called the first “live streamed genocide”? This episode first aired on October 8, 2024. In this episo...

The undercover team finally comes face-to-face with the high-ranking Bangladeshi politician who kicked it all off. Meanwhile, events back home have scrambled his plans and sent him into hiding.  In the world of finance the minister was classified as a PEP - a Politically Exposed Person. Now the walls are closing in on the man his own estate agent called a Super PEP. Episode Credits: This episode w...

To gain the Estate Agent’s trust, we assume the identity of a high-net worth individual.  The team goes all out: Rolls Royce, Savoy Suite, fancy clothes, you name it. Would it be enough to get him to spill his secrets about how the Minister manages his millions?  Episode Credits: This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with Adrian Gatton. Craig Pennington is our sound designer.  Addi...

With foreign ownership of UK housing skyrocketing, the team heads to an overseas property fair in Istanbul, Turkey. This is where overseas buyers scoop up great swaths of property in bulk. Our goal is to track down the estate agent who helped this Bangladeshi politician build his global housing empire. Episode Credits: This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten, with Adrian Gatton. Crai...

In the midst of a historic housing crisis, a tip came into the AJ I-Unit that a high-ranking politician from Bangladesh might be one the largest private landlords in the UK. The team set about chasing down the information; what’s true, what's not and how this story helped explain why millions of regular people can’t afford to buy. Episode Credits: This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hir...

In the shadows of the UN’s climate conference, our undercover reporters, posing as criminals from Hong Kong, arrange a meeting with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa. There’s a billion-dollar plan on the table to turn Victoria Falls into a mega-casino on the scale of Las Vegas and Macau. Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alexa...

The stakes continue to rise as the AJ I-Unit gets closer to the center of power. Our undercover team meets one of Zimbabwe’s most powerful diplomats who offers to help launder a billion dollars on our behalf. With buy-in at the highest levels of government, it’s clear nothing is off the table.  Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alex...

When it comes to laundering illicit funds through the gold trade, all roads seem to lead to Dubai. The AJ I-Unit gains access to the city’s famed Gold Tower where we learn how traders disguise the true origin of smuggled gold and dirty money.  Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alexander James and Sarah Yeo are the lead investigators...

It all starts with a pack of illegal cigarettes bought on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa. The AJ I-Unit follows the money as it’s laundered by a flamboyant gangster known as Mo Dollars. His former partners tell all about his lavish lifestyle and audacious schemes to launder millions. Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alex...

He nearly bankrupted Kenya and now he’s back to his old tricks. Our undercover team meets with Kamlesh Pattni, the notorious businessman behind the famed Goldenberg Scandal. Pattni tells all about how he cleans dirty money through the international gold trade.  Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alexander James and Sarah Yeo are the...

The AJ I-Unit goes undercover to expose some of Africa’s biggest gold smugglers and money launderers. We take you inside a scheme to wash millions of dollars by trading gold from Southern Africa to the Middle East and back again. Find out why gold is the key that unlocks it all. Episode Credits : This episode was written and produced by Kevin Hirten with help from Amy Walters. Alexander James and...

Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise election as UK Labour leader in 2015 ignites a vicious internal war within the Party. The left flank has the people but the right flank has the power. The Labour Files , a massive leak of internal documents, reveal how Corbyn’s opponents within the party manoeuvered to disable him as the Labour leader – abandoning democracy in the process.  

In the 2017 general election, Jeremy Corbyn shocks everyone after falling just a few thousand votes short of becoming Prime Minister. The Labour Files , a massive leak of internal party documents, reveal how panic over Corbyn’s success unites his opponents. Meanwhile, a new scandal is brewing that will ultimately lead to his downfall.  

A scandal over antisemitism in the UK Labour Party engulfs the final months of Jeremy Corbyn’s time as leader.  But, as The Labour Files show, the facts don’t match the public narrative that sets in following a brutal, internal conflict and the broadcast of a controversial BBC documentary.       

The factional war is over. Sir Keir Starmer is the new Leader. The Labour left is scattered and shattered.  But the party leadership is in no mood to reconcile.  The Labour Files show an unprecedented effort to purge the party of Jeremy Corbyn supporters and make sure what happened in 2015 can never happen again.

‘The Truth Illusion’ explores one of the most profound questions that philosophers through the ages have tried to answer. What can we prove to be the truth? In today's deeply divided societies, is it even possible for people to agree on a common ‘reality’? Al Jazeera investigates how those deepening divisions began and how they have eroded faith in authority – creatin...

When Al Jazeera's I-Unit released its investigation into sexual misconduct against women at British Universities in late 2021, it created a storm on social media. But after the revelations, has anything changed? In this episode, Degrees of Abuse: The Impact, we find out what’s happened to the four male academics accused of abuse. We also hear from women in each case about how it felt to fina...

The PhD student at Glasgow University was charismatic and charming and part of his appeal was his tragic past. But his relationships with several women became abusive and controlling.  As our investigation dug deeper into his history in his home country, we uncovered his lies and the real story of his murdered wife. *Please note some listeners may find these accounts upsetting. 

More incredible revelations about how a PhD student at Glasgow University lied about his dead wife and falsely accused innocent people of killing her.  Question is, why has it taken almost four years for Glasgow University to investigate multiple complaints about him? *Please note some listeners may find these accounts upsetting.