Dhaka: Two prominent human rights activists who have tracked extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Bangladesh were sentenced to two years in prison, raising alarm about a new escalation in quashing dissent.
The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal found Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan guilty of spreading misinformation under the country’s information technology act. It was the latest example of a widespread campaign by PM Sheikh Hasina to use the judiciary, among other institutions that she has largely captured in her 14 years at the helm, to bog down dissenting voices as she firms her grip ahead of the next election.
The case against Khan and Elan, leaders of the human rights group Odhikar, stems from a fact-finding report by their group about a brutal episode a decade ago in Dhaka. The report, released in 2013, found that the police had committed grave abuses in clearing a rally organised by a hardline Islamist organisation. The organissation, Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, had brought the city to a halt in May of that year with a protest against comments and cartoons it considered offensive to the Prophet Muhammad. In response, the police staged a late-night crackdown, unleashing violence. Odhikar’s report said it had found the names of 61 people who were killed. Soon after the report’s release, Hasina’s government called the report distorted and defamatory.
In a joint letter, over 30 international human rights outfits called the conviction of the activists “retaliation for documenting human rights violation” and asked for their release.