UPDATE (Bangladesh): Mr. Akash faces three alleged false charges; Judge issued warrant against him

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information on January 7, 2008 that Akash, a human rights defender as well as journalist, has been facing several allegedly false extortion charges in Rajshahi Bangladesh. Even though a vacation bench of the High Court granted him bail on October 16 on one of cases, the Rapid Action Battalion-5 arbitrarily arrested, allegedly tortured him on October 24 (Please see: UP-142-2007) and detained him. The Magistrate’s Court issued an ordered to detain him in prison where he remained for 28 days. His legal representative submitted all the necessary documents required for the trial but a judge of the Rajshahi Judge’s Court issued an arrest warrant without considering the documents.

UPDATED INFORMATION:

Mr. Akash, coordinator of the Task Force against Torture (TFT)-Rajshahi city, the regional coordinator of the Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) in the region and a journalist working as the bureau chief of a private news television channel CSB News and Daily Sangbad, a Dhaka based national newspaper, has been facing at least three extortion charges which he alleges are fabricated. In his work he has on numerous occasions disclosed the atrocities of the RAB in cases involving human rights violations.

The cases that Akash has been implicated in are No. 2 of the Boalia police station, dated 2 October 2007 lodged by Mr. Mahfuzul Alam Loton, No. 13 of the Puthia police station, dated 23 October 2007 lodged by Mr. Abdul Jalil and No. 28 of Puthia police station, dated 25 November 2007 lodged by Mr. Abdul Latif Biswas. All cases are extortion charges, which Akash strongly denies.

According to newly received information Justice Mr. A F M Abdur Rahman of the vacation bench of the High Court, which runs instead of a regular bench during vacation periods, granted an ad-interim bail to Akash in one of his cases (No. 2 of Boalia police station, dated 2 October 2007) charged under section 385/386 of the Penal Code on 16 October 2007. It further mentioned that this case would be heard before a regular bench when the court reopens.

Despite of the order from the High Court, the RAB-5 arbitrarily arrested Akash on October 24 (See further UP-142-2007). He was allegedly tortured and later detained him the Rajshahi Central Jail for 28 days through the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court in the region.

On November 8, Magistrate Mr. Oli Ahmed from the CMM Court’s ordered the dropping of the case against Akash under the article of 16(2) of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007 in his first case, as the country is still under the state of emergency, when he was detained in the Rajshahi Central Jail.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs sanctioned a note forwarded by the district administration of Rajshahi for the case on November 25. It is alleged that the district administration forwarded a petition due to the pressure from the RAB-5 based in Rajshahi city.

As the country has been under a State of Emergency since 11 January 2007, attaching any case within the jurisdiction of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007 supplements a trial of the cases within 45 days since the beginning of the trial. In order for doing so, Mr. Mohammod Hossain, Akash’s legal advocate, lodged a writ petition (No. 10905/2007) on December 13 to the bench of the High Court under the Article 102((2) (A) (II) of the Constitution of Bangladesh to challenge the interventions from the Ministry and the district administration.

On 2 January 2008, the bench of the High Court comprising of Justice Mr. A B M Khairul Haque and Justice Mr. Abdul Awal ruled that it stayed the sanction issued by the district administration by way of the Ministry of Home Affairs for three months after a hearing. It also asked the representatives of the Government to give a reason why the sanction issued by the Ministry was not declared as unlawful. (Those representatives, in this case, are the Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs, the Additional Secretary of Law Department-1 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Sessions Judge of Rajshahi district, the Additional Inspector General of Police (Offence)-2, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Head Quarter) of the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, and Mr. Mahfuzul Alam Loton who lodged a complaint against Akash.)

Akash and his family are living in separate places due to security problems as they continuously receive threats and intimidation from the complainants of the alleged fabricated cases as well as the officers of the RAB-5 based in Rajshahi district.

According to the latest information received on 7 January 2008, Mr. Mohammod Hossain, Akash’s legal advocate submitted all necessary documents including his certificate and an affidavit from Farhana Sarmin, Akash’s wife, to the Judge Court. Judge Mr. AR Masud of Rajshahi District Session Judge’s Court issued an arrest warrant against Akash without considering the documents submitted.

The AHRC has also learned that the Commanding Officer (CO) of the RAB-5, Mr. Quazi Shamsuzzaman Khan, has recently been transferred from his position; and Major Mr. Rashidul Hassan Rashid, who was allegedly responsible for arrest, torture, detention, intimidation and threats to Akash, has been appointed as the acting CO of the Battalion. By appointing Major Rashid as an acting CO of the force the authorities have upheld the culture of impunity yet again; instead of punishing the perpetrator, the authorities promote the alleged perpetrators.

BACKGROUND COMMENTS:

On January 11, 2007 the President of Bangladesh proclaimed a State of Emergency and the State of Emergency has been accompanied by the Emergency Powers Ordinance-2007, which has supplemented the Emergency Powers Rules-2007. These emergency rules and ordinance have been repeatedly abused by law-enforcement agents in the country, notably to carry out arbitrary arrests of people without the need for any justification. The law effectively legalized arbitrary arrests and detention now in Bangladesh. (See further, UP-142-2007)

This case illustrates how the law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh simply ignored the decision or order of the courts. It also illustrates there are dysfunctions in the judiciary system in Bangladesh. Even though the vacation bench of the High Court granted Akash Bail on October 16, the RAB arbitrarily arrested him on October 24 and the Rajshahi CMM Court issued an order to detain him in prison where he had to remain for 28 days until he was bailed by the Court of Session Judge of Rajshahi.

The High Court is well aware of this, however, it has so far failed to give an order to investigate those responsible, which in practice, give them impunity. Please also see an article on “Laws without order & courts of no relief in Bangladesh“, a special report on Bangladesh (article 2, Vol. 5, No. 4) with regards to the rule of law and judiciary system published by the Asian Legal Resource Centre which is a sister organisation of the AHRC. Since November 1, 2007, Magistrate’s courts and judge’s courts have been separated from the executive branch of the government.

BRIEF REMINDER OF THE CASE:

The AHRC has kept informing you of his case from the beginning. Please see the summary of the Urgent Appeals that it has issued so far.

On May 3, 2007, after the CSB News, a private television channel, broadcasted the news of the attempted extrajudicial killing of an alleged criminal on May 2 by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Mr. Jahangir Alam Akash, the journalist, received a threat from a person identified himself as Major Rashidul Hassan Rashid, an official of the RAB-5 in Rajshahi region. (See further, UA-149-2007)

After the AHRC issued an appeal with regards to allegation of intimidation by RAB, a police officer of the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) began the investigation into this case and Akash went to the office of the Assistant Police Commissioner (APC) of the RMP, Mr. Muhammad Saiful Islam, and gave his written statement to the APC on 3 July 2007. (See further, UP-101-2007)

It was known on August 28 that Akash was implicated in an alleged false extortion charge (Reference: General Diary No. 1160) lodged by Mr. Mahfuzul Alam Loton, the vice president of the Awami League of the Rajshahi City Unit on 20 June 2007, which Akash strongly insisted that Loton’s complaint against him was completely false and Mr. Loton made it because Akash had published a number of reports in the media detailing the misdeeds of Mr. Loton. Akash alleged that Mr. Loton and his two friends Mr. Asad and Mr. Tuku have been working as the RAB’s source. (See further, UP-122-2007)

At around 12:30am on October 24, RAB-5 in Rajshahi region arbitrarily arrested Akash and allegedly hung him from the ceiling for a few hours and severely beat him in the army camp. Then, RAB-5 handed him over to the Boaliya police, who then produced him before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Rajshahi, under arrest for Section 16(2) of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007. Akash has been implicated in another fabricated extortion case (Case number: Boaliya Thana No. 13 of 2007) under the Bangladesh Penal Code lodged by a person named Harum on October 23. However Harum was convicted of jail term and fine by a court for a rape case in which Akash had conducted the fact-finding mission and identified him as the offender. (See further, UP-142-2007)

On November 21, the AHRC issued updated appeal that Akash received once again threat by the RAB that he would be booked with yet another fabricated charge and would be shot dead as if he was killed in an encounter. (See further, UP-155-2007)

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to the authorities below and urge them to provide immediate protection to Mr. Akash. Please also demand the authorities to conduct an impartial inquiry about the activities of the officers of the Home Ministry, Rajshahi district administration and the RAB-5 stationed in Rajshahi city.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights defenders calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER