Bangladesh, May 1 -- There is a certain theatrical quality to the claims now circulating in Londons legal corridors—documents laden with grave accusations, sweeping language about “crimes against humanity,” and a narrative that attempts to transform a deeply entangled personal saga into a universal moral cause. But strip away the legal ornamentation, and what remains is a far less heroic story: one of privilege, proximity to power, and the predictable consequences when that proximity turns sour.

Let us begin with Colonel Shahid Uddin Khan, a figure who, by any honest accounting, was not an outsider persecuted by the system, but rather one of its most conspicuous beneficiaries. During the tenure of Sheikh Hasinas governm...