Senior journalist Shafik Rehman detained as Government repression of journalists grows

In the early morning of 16April 2016, plainclothed police, who did not have any warrant of arrest against Rehman, gainedaccess to his house in Dhaka by falsely claiming to be “journalists” from aprivate TV channel, and arrested the veteran journalist, a British national ofBangladeshi origin.

After taking Rehman to the Detective Branch Policeheadquarters, the police showed him to be arrested in relation to a pending criminalcase registered in August 2015 for “conspiring to abduct and assassinate” PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is an immigrant in the UnitedStates and an Information and Technology Adviser to the Prime Minister. AMetropolitan Magistrate of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhakaplaced Rehman in police remand for five days, where local human rights groupsfear he will be tortured.

Rehman’sarrest is the latest in a wave of detentions and trumped up charges againstjournalists and critics of the Government. Several other individuals, includingrenowned journalists, are currently in detention and face dozens of trumped upand falsified criminal cases.

On11 April 2013, the Government detained Mr. MahmudurRahman, Acting Editor of Daily AmarDesh, a national daily newspaper, and shut down his newspaper forpublishing stories about a corruption scam involving the Prime Minister’s sonSajeeb Wazed Joy and her Adviser on Energy and Mineral Resources Affairs.Rahman has now spent over three years in arbitrary detention, and currentlyfaces 72 criminal cases. Over the past years, Rahman has been granted bail bythe Courts, but each time the police present a new criminal case against him inorder to prevent him from being released.

Mr.Abdus Salam, Chairman of Ekushey TV, was arrested on 6 January2015 on alleged pornography charges, after hisprivate TV channel broadcast a speech of an exiled Senior Vice Chairperson ofthe BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the main opposition political party], Mr. Tareque Rahman. Later, the Government allegedly took activepart in helping a pro-government controversial businessman purchase the majorityshares in Ekushey TV from AbdusSalam, who is still in detention.

Mr.Shawkat Mahmud, Editor of WeeklyEconomics Time, has been arbitrarily detained since 18 August 2015 and now faces 24 fabricated criminal cases. He is associatedwith the opposition party and is known to be critical of the Government. As with Mahmudur Rahman, whenever the Courts grantShawkat Mahmud bail, the police present a new case against him to keep him indetention.

Mr.Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Daily Star, is facing 79 cases ofsedition and defamation for having published reports in 2007 that accusednow-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of corruption. These reports were based onuncorroborated information and Mahfuz Anam has since stated that it was amistake to have published them, but nevertheless faces 17 sedition and 62defamation cases. On 11 April 2016, the High Court stayed the proceedings of 72of the cases filed against him, but he still could be sentenced to up to 175years in prison if he is convicted of the charges he faces.

Thisabuse of the judicial system to silence and harass journalists is creating aclimate of fear and self-censorship in Bangladesh. The trumped up charges andarbitrary detentions of Government critics is a violation of internationalhuman rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, which Bangladesh has ratified. The international community, inparticular the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council,must engage actively to stop the repression of free expression in Bangladesh.All journalists and individuals detained for exercising their basic right tofree expression, including Shafik Rehman, Mahmudur Rahman, Abdus Salam andShawkat Mahmud, must be immediately and unconditionally released.

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The Asian Human Rights Commission is aregional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia,documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform toensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based groupwas founded in 1984.

FIDH (The InternationalFederation for Human Rights) is a non-governmental federation of national humanrights organizations from around the world. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the oldestinternational human rights organisation in the world, and today brings together178 member organisations in over 100 countries. Its core mandate is to promoterespect for all the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of HumanRights.

TheWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that wascreated in 1985. It leadsa global coalition of 297 human rights NGOs around the world, members of its SOS-Torture Network, helping them to more effectively fight againsttorture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and other cruel, inhumanand degrading treatment.