Release Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary of Odhikar and a member of OMCT General Assembly!

PRIME MINISTER OF BANGLADESH

Via Fax: +880 2 8113243

Email: info@pmo.gov.bd

Geneva, August 13, 2013

Re: Arbitrary detention of Mr. AdilurRahman Khan,Secretary of Odhikar and a member of OMCT General Assembly

Your Excellency,

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), through the voiceof all the undersigned, members of its General Assembly, is writing to you toexpress its grave concern over the arbitrary detention sinceAugust 10, 2013 of Mr. Adilur Rahman KHAN,Secretary of the human rights non-governmental organisation Odhikar, OMCTnetwork member in Bangladesh and, like us, a member of OMCT General Assembly.Mr. Khan is also an Executive Committee Member of Forum Asia and has been theDeputy Attorney General during the erstwhile four-party alliancegovernment.

On August 10, 2013, at 10.20 pm, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan wasarrested by men in plain clothes who said they were of the DetectiveBranch of Police (DB) as he was returning at his Gulshan residence in Dhakawith his family. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police subsequentlyconfirmed the arrest to the media.

On August11, 2013, Mr. AdilurRahman Khan was brought before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (CMM),where thecomplaint against him was read by the Public Prosecutor. The complaint, whichwas only handed over to his lawyers after Mr. Khanwas presented before the Court, was signed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.The police lodged two General Diaries against him on August 10, 2013, one(General Diary number 268) by the Detective Branch of Police (North) underSection 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the other (General Diarynumber 514) by the Gulshan police station. Mr. Khanwas also charged under clauses 1 and 2 of Section 57 of the Information andCommunication Technology Act 2006 for publishing false images and informationand disrupting the law and order situation of the country, in relation to afact-finding report issued by Odhikar about the killing of 61 people during anoperation carried out on May 5-6, 2013 by law enforcement agencies against Hefazat-e Islam activists at the Dhaka’s downtownMotijheel area.The complaint also alleged that there would be reasonable suspicion that Mr.Khan is also directly and indirectly liable for other cognizable offences.

The Public Prosecutor sought a ten-day remand against Mr. AdilurRahman Khan while his lawyers sought bail. The Magistrate, Judge Amit Kumar Dey, rejected the bailpetition andplaced Mr. Khan on a five-day remand for interrogation. Mr. Khan was then taken back to the Office of the Detective Branch(DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police at 36 Minto Road, in Dhaka.

Furthermore, on August 11, 2013,the Odhikar office was searched by DB police between 8.20 pm and9.00 pm. They inspected the files and documents and then seized three laptopsand two CPUs from Odhikar's office.

On 12 August 2013, the High Court of Bangladesh stayedthe five-day remand order to interrogate Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan and askedpolice to send him to jail. 
A High Court vacation bench comprised of JusticeBorhanuddin and Justice Kashifa Hossain, however, allowed the Detective Branchto interrogate Mr. Khan at the Dhaka Central Jail gate premises, if necessary.
The court passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Mr. Khan, challengingthe legality of the remand order granted by Judge Amit Kumar Dey of the ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate’s Court.

The World Organisation AgainstTorture (OMCT), the leading global network ofcivil society organisations against torture, summary executions, enforceddisappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment orpunishment in the world, is concerned that the detention of Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan directly results from his exercise of universallyrecognised human rights, in particular the right to freedom of expression andfreedom of association (which includes the right, individually or inassociation with others, to promote and protect human rights). Those rights areprotected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 20), the UnitedNations Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities to Promote and ProtectUniversally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19 and Article22).

As members of OMCT GeneralAssembly, we are concerned that Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan’s detention only aims at sanctioning and preventing his activities as a human rights defender, therefore contradicting international human rights standards andBangladesh’s obligations.

Accordingly, we respectfully urge Your Excellency to guarantee in allcircumstances the physical and psychological integrityof Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, to fully ensure safeguards against torture and ill treatmentduring his detention and interrogation as well as to releasehim immediatelyand unconditionally. In the meantime, please guarantee Mr.Khan’s full access to his lawyers and family, as well as to an independentmedical counsel. We also ask you to permit access to international observers.

We hope that theconcerns expressed in this letter will receive the attention they deserve andwe would welcome your prompt responses on these matters.

Yours sincerely,

Yves Berthelot

President

Gerald Staberock

Secretary General

Members of OMCT General Assembly

ABU AL-ZULOF George

ALAYZA Ernesto

ARRIAGA Luis

ASSAF Georges

BENABDESSELAM Abdel-ilah

BODNAR Adam

CANTON Santiago Alejandro

CHUKWUMA Innocent

De MESA Teodoro

DIALLO Oumar

DIEYE Aminata

DIMITRAS Panayote

DOEK E. Jaap

DOUGAN BEACA José

DUTOUR Nassera

GHAEMI Hadi

GOMEZ ZULUAGA Alberto L.

GROVER Vrinda

HARRIS Theresa

JENDOUBI Kamel

KHIDASHELI Tinatin

MARTY Dick

MASIKA BIHAMBA Justine

MEDRANO AMADOR Celia

MESSAOUD Boubacar

MOHOCHI Sam

O’CONNOR Florizelle

O’FLAHERTY Michael

PALMIERI Gustavo

QUIROGA CARRILLO Jahel

SABER Karim

SADOVSKAYA Olga

SAMAYOA Claudia

SHIRAISHI Osamu

TIPHAGNE Henri

TRAVIS Anthony

TRIFI Mokhtar

XIA Renee

YUNUS Leyla

Copiesto:

- H.E. Mr. Muhiuddin KhanAlamgir, Minister for Home Affairs, via Email: mkalamgir@yahoo.com; minister@mha.gov.bd;

- Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, via Email: info@minlaw.gov.bd

- Mr. Hasanul Haq Inu, Minister of Information, via E-mail: minister@moi.gov.bd

- H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni, Minister of Foreign Affairs, via Fax: 9562188 & 7171433 and Email: fm@mofa.gov.bd; dr.dipumoni@gmail.com; shanchitahaque@yahoo.com

- Mr. Hasan MahmudKhandaker, Inspector General of Police, via Email: ig@police.gov.bd

- Dr. Mizanur Rahman,
Chairperson, National HumanRights Commission Bangladesh, via 
Fax: +88 028333219
and Email: nhrc.bd@gmail.com

- H.E. Mr. Abdul Hannan,Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to theUnited Nations in Geneva, via Fax: +41 22 738 46 16 and E-mail: mission.bangladesh@ties.itu.int