Odhikar Secretary and member of OMCT General Assembly Adilur Rahman Khan placed under remand for five days

BGD 001 / 0813 /OBS 074.1

Arbitrary detention /

Judicial harassment

Bangladesh

August 11, 2013

The Observatory for theProtection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for HumanRights (FIDH), has received new information and requests your urgentintervention in the following situation in Bangladesh.

New information:

The Observatory has been informedby reliable sources that Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan,Secretary of the human rights non-governmental organisation Odhikar, a memberof OMCT General Assembly and Executive Committee Member of Forum Asia[1],was placed under remand for five days.

Accordingto the information received, on August 11, 2013, Mr. AdilurRahman Khan was brought before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court, where Judge AmitKumar Dey placed him on afive-day remand for interrogation in connection with publishing a “falsereport” on casualties during a crackdown on a rally by the Islamistorganisation Hefazat-e Islam on May 5-6, 2013 (See background information), after hearing a petition from police seeking a ten-dayremand.

The Observatory reiteratesits deepest concern about Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan's arbitrarydetention, which seem to merely aim at sanctioning his peaceful humanrights activities, and calls upon the authorities inBangladesh to guarantee in all circumstances his physical and psychologicalintegrity as well as to release him immediately and unconditionally.

Background information:

On August 10, 2013, at 10.20 pm, Mr.Adilur Rahman Khan was arrested by eight or nine men in plain clothes who saidthey were ofthe Detective Branch of Police (DB) as he was returning at his Gulshan residence in Dhaka[2] withhis family. The men, who brought a white microbus apparently belonging to the UnitedCommercial Bank and a blue and silver coloured mitsubishi pajero, asked Mr.Adilur Rahman Khan to follow them. They did not present anywarrant of arrest and did not inform neither his family nor Mr. RahmanKhan why they were arresting him and where they were taking him.

On August 11, 2013, at 2:00 am, Odhikardefenders went to the Gulshan police, where the police present denied havingany case against Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan and claimed that theylearnt of his arrest from the media. Odhikar defenders also went to the DBoffice at
12:30 am on August 11, where the sentries denied them entry.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police subsequently confirmed the arrest to themedia, adding that Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan has beenarrested under the Information and Communication Technology Act. The arrest wasallegedly made on the basis of a general diary filed by thepolice with Gulshan police station, in relation to the fact-finding reportissued by Odhikar about the killing of 61people during an operation carried out on May 5-6, 2013 by law enforcementagencies against Hifazat-e Islam activists atthe Dhaka’s downtown Motijheel area.

After Odhikar released on June 10, 2013 its fact-finding report on thehuman rights
violations perpetrated at the Hefazot rally in Motijheel on May 5-6, 2013, theInformation Ministry sent a letter to Odhikar on July 10, 2013 askingfor the names, family
names and addresses of the 61 deceased people. In its reply letter sent to theInformation Ministry on July 17, 2013, and concerned for the security ofvictims' families, Odhikar requested those concerned to form anindependent impartial commission headed by a retired judge, where Odhikar iswilling to submit the names of the 61 victims killed.

Action requested:

Please write to the authorities in Bangladesh, urging themto:

i. Guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical andpsychological integrity of Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan and of all human rights defenders in Bangladesh;

ii. Release Mr. Adilur RahmanKhan immediately and unconditionally as his detention is arbitrary sinceit only aims at sanctioning his human rights activities;

iii. Put an end to any kind of harassment - including at thejudicial level - against Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan and all human rightsdefenders in Bangladesh;

iv. Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration onHuman Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nationson December 9, 1998, especially:

- its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right,individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for theprotection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at thenational and international levels”, as well as

- its Article 12.2, which provides that the State shall “takeall necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities ofeveryone, individually and in association with others, against any violence,threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure orany other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exerciseof his or her rights”;

v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights andfundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standardsand international instruments ratified by Bangladesh.

Addresses:

• Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, Gona Bhaban, Old Sangsad Bhaban, Tejgaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Fax: +880 2 8113243, Email: info@pmo.gov.bd
• Mr. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, Minister for Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bangladesh Secretariat Building 4, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Email: mkalamgir@yahoo.com; minister@mha.gov.bd;
• Barrister Shafique Ahmed, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Email: info@minlaw.gov.bd
• Mr. Hasanul Haq Inu, Honourable Minister, Ministry of Information, Building # 4 (8th floor), Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. E-mail: minister@moi.gov.bd
• Mr. Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, Inspector General of Police, Police Headquarters, Phoenix Road, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, Email : ig@police.gov.bd
• H.E. Mr. Abdul Hannan, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to the United Nations in Geneva, 65 rue de Lausanne, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 738 46 16, E-mail: mission.bangladesh@ties.itu.int
• Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Brussels, 29-31 rue J. Jordaens, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 2 646 59 98; Email: bdootbrussels@skynet.be

Please also write to thediplomatic missions or embassies of Bangladesh in your respective country as well as to the EU diplomatic missions orembassies in Bangladesh.

***

Geneva-Paris, August 11, 2013

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the codeof this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, an OMCT and FIDH venture, is dedicated tothe protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concretesupport in their time of need.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org

· Tel andfax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

· Tel andfax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

[1] Mr.Adilur Rahman Khan has also been the Deputy Attorney General during the erstwhilefour-party alliance government.

[2] TheOdhikar office and Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan's homeare situated in the same building.