The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) condemns the sentencing of human rights organization Odhikar leaders Adilur Rahman Khan and Nasiruddin Elan by a court in Bangladesh on September 14, 2023. Their “crime” was exposing the brutal killings by the forces of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a peaceful gathering of Hefazat-e-Islam, an Islamic advocacy group of madrassah teachers and students in Dhaka in 2013. The prosecution justified the penalty on the grounds that they published “false information, hurting religious sentiments and undermining the image of the state,” a stereotype charge under the detested Digital Security Act (DSA), which will soon be replaced by an equally dangerous Cyber Security Act (CSA).
Odhikar, a leading rights organization in the country since 1994, had been documenting thousands of human rights violations that included extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, unlawful arrests and torture of political opponents and activists, and brutalities by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police. It works closely with the United Nations and other global human rights groups. The Bangladesh government canceled Odhikar’s operating license last year amidst global condemnation.
Observers see the judicial act on Odhikar as an intensified crackdown on the people in advance of the crucial election scheduled for January of 2024. “This verdict will send a chilling message to the human rights defenders in the country and make their work enormously difficult,” said Nur Khan Liton, a former head of another of the country’s leading human rights organizations. Tanvir Chowdhury of Al-Jazeera opined similarly.
The United States Embassy in Dhaka issued a statement saying the sentencing of the Odhikar leaders would “discourage human rights defenders while the new legislation of the Cyber Security Act (CSA) continues to criminalize freedom of expression.”
Amnesty Internal, Human Rights Watch and 37 other rights groups demanded the Bangladesh authorities to quash the conviction and immediate release of Khan and Elan. Separately, 72 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International, Nonviolence International, Canada, stated, “We stand with Khan and Elan and urge the authorities to releases immediately and unconditionally, as they have been detained solely for their human rights work.”
In a related move, the European Union adopted a Joint Resolution on September 14, 2023, expressing serious concerns over the “deteriorating human rights situation “in Bangladesh. With particular reference to legal action against the Odhikar leaders, it called for adherence to international standards to ensure civil and political rights, as well as to restore a safe working environment for NGOs, human rights defenders, activists and religious minorities. It also called for a free, fair, and participatory election in January of 2024. CHRD Bangladesh welcomes the EU Resolution.
CHRD Bangladesh joins the international chorus to dismiss the cases against the Odhikar leaders, reinstate its operating license, and allow the rights organizations and their workers function freely. It also demands the next election to be held under a non-partisan, neutral caretaker government, as the current Bangladesh government has proven beyond any doubt that it is incapable of holding a fair and credible election.