Adilur Rahman Khan denied bail for the third time!
Geneva-Paris, September 25, 2013. The WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for HumanRights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for theProtection of Human Rights Defenders, reiterate their deep concern about theongoing detention and the repeated refusal to grant bail to Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary of the prominent human rights non-governmental organisation Odhikar and a member of OMCT General Assembly.
Today, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan was presented to the Cyber Crimes Tribunal, which dismissed the bailpetition filed by his lawyer on September 19. This was the third time Mr. Khan'slawyer was submitting a petition seeking bail for his client, which was alreadydenied on August 11 and September 9. Judge AKMShamsul Alam scheduled the next hearing to October 21, 2013.
The Observatory further denounces that to date a PublicProsecutor has not yet been appointed to represent the Government at Mr. Khan'strial, which amounts to further harassment and delayin framing charges against him. Furthermore, as the Judge is not releasing any order sheets toMr. Khan’s lawyers, this makes any appeal to the higher courts impossible. Meanwhile, Mr. Khan remains arbitrarily detained in Kashimpur Jail number 1, onthe outskirts of Dhaka city.
The Observatory recalls that Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan hasbeen arbitrarily detained since August 10, 2013, in relation to a fact-findingreport issued by Odhikar on the killing of 61 people during an operation carried out on May 5-6, 2013 bysecurity forces against Hefazat-e Islam activists in Dhaka. A charge sheet wassubsequently filed against Mr. Khan as well as against Odhikar'sDirector Mr. NasiruddinElan for allegedly “distorting images” and “publishing a fabricatedreport”, under Section 57 (1) and (2) of the Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) Act and Sections505 (c) and 505A of the Penal Code, in relation to Odhikar’sreport. If found guilty, the twohuman rights defenders might face up to 14 years in jail or Tk 10,000,000 (about 93,660 €) fine under the ICT Act and sevenyears’ jail term under the Penal Code.
Inaddition, on September 11, 2013, the CyberCrimes Tribunal issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Nasiruddin Elan and, today, it directedofficer-in-charge of Gulshan police station to submit by October 21 the reporton the execution of the arrest warrant.
"The repeated refusal of bail andthis through a tribunal specially set up under the new law raises additionalconcerns about the fairness and credibility of the process”, said today OMCT Secretary GeneralGerald Staberock. “We continue to hope that the judicial system will provesuch concerns wrong and act independently as protector of rights. Detentionpending trial must be an exception and not the rule under international humanrights law”, he added.
"The detention of Mr. AdilurRahman Khan is arbitrary and as such contradicts internationalhuman rights standards as well as Bangladesh’s obligations", said Karim Lahidji, President of FIDH. "Accordingly, we call upon the Government of Bangladeshto release him immediately and unconditionally and to put an end to anyharassment against Odhikar", he added.