Detained newspaper editor fatally tortured in police remand

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-080-2013
April 19, 2013

A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission

BANGLADESH: Detained newspaper editor fatally tortured in police remand

The authorities in Bangladesh yesterday shifted the Interim Editor of the Daily Amar Desh, Mr. Mahmudur Rahman, to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU). Rahman has been held in detention at the Kashimpur Central Jail since 17 April 2013. The court had allowed Rahman to be detained in police remand for six days, before the police handed him over to judicial remand. It has been reported that Mr. Rahman had to be shifted to the hospital since he has been suffering from severe torture wounds, allegedly inflicted upon him by the police during custody. Rahman has been reportedly fasting in custody in protest against his illegal detention, inhuman torture, the arrest of his colleagues, illegal closure of the printing press of the Daily Amar Desh and implicating the vice-chairperson of the Amardesh Publications Limited, Mrs. Mahmuda Begum, who happens to be Rahman's mother, in a fabricated criminal case.

Since Rahman's arrest on 11 April 2013, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been calling upon national as well as international civil society organisations to intervene in this case, to ensure that Rahman is not tortured in custody. The AHRC has written to the Inspector General of Police in Bangladesh, seeking the appropriate officers' supervision to ensure that Rahman is not tortured during interrogation. The AHRC also wrote to Mr. Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, to ensure the government's constitutional and procedural mandates while undertaking the investigation of charges leveled against Rahman.

The AHRC has been informed that Rahman has undergone extremely cruel forms of tortures during custody resulting in serious physical injuries. AHRC has learned from several reliable sources that the torture took place on the second day of Rahman's police custody. Eye witnesses in Court have claimed that Rahman has numerous injuries on both of his legs, seemingly resulted from iron nails hammered into his fleshes and bones. Rahman has also undergone repeated electric shocks. He has been suffering from a heart condition that requires an immediate intensive medical attention, and failure in which may cost his life.

On 11 April, the government has sealed and closed the printing press of the Amardesh Publications. Rahman has been arrested on three separate charges. The first case, of sedition, has been lodged by a prosecutor of the "International Crimes Tribunal" (ICT) at the Tejgaon Police Station in Dhaka, accusing Rahman for reproducing a Skype conversation between a Judge of the ICT and a person living abroad concerning an ongoing trial. The Tejgaon police lodged the second case accusing Rahman of destroying vehicles on the road even though Rahman had been continuously living in his newspaper office. The third case against Rahman was filed on his alleged publication of an unverified letter along with a photograph. This is nothing new in Bangladesh, where judiciary has been almost destroyed due to high degree of political manipulation and the police are used as government's bonded thugs.

The police's forced closure of the printing press of Daily Amardesh, is arbitrary. There has been no court case or order from any court of law in the country directing the police to close down the press. To ensure publication of the Daily, the Interim Chairperson of the Amardesh Publication Limited, Mrs. Mahmuda Begum, made an alternative arrangement to print the newspaper at the Al-Falah Printing Press. However, a District Magistrate -- an executive officer and not a judicial magistrate -- prohibited the printing, prompting the police to arrest 19 workers of the press. The police also registered a case on 13 April against Mahmuda Begum and the editor and publisher of the Daily Sangram, a newspaper of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party. Mrs. Mahmuda was granted an anticipatory bail from a High Court Division Bench after her application had been heard on 16 April.

Rahman, while in custody, went on a hunger strike to protest the closure of the press, demanding immediate release of the 19 persons arrested for helping Daily Amar Desh to print, and against registering the false case against Mahmuda Begum. Due to this, Rahman's health further deteriorated.

Rahman has reportedly informed his lawyers and colleagues that the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has cruelly tortured him in custody that includes electric shocks and several methods. The lawyers and those who were present in court, when Rahman was produced in court, have claimed that Rahman was finding it difficult to sit in court and that he had fresh flesh wounds on his legs. His dress was reportedly bloodstained.

On 18 April, a writ petition was filed at a High Court Division Bench challenging the order of sending Rahman in police remand. Rahman's lawyers allege that placing Rahman in police remand without adequate measures in place to ensure the detainee's physical health, violates the High Court's directives concerning under-trial detention. According to the High Court Division's directives, every detainee has a right to be examined by a qualified medical practitioner prior to remand and for regular medical examinations during the entire period of detention. The person is also entitled for a medical examination before release.

The understandable rationale of the High Court directives is meant for the court to ensure the physical safety of a detainee and to prevent torture in custody. None of this was followed in Rahman's case. When this was brought to the attention of the court, the Attorney General of Bangladesh, Mr. Mahbubey Alam, objected the submissions, alleging that the High Court Division's directives are not applicable in this case. In fact, the government had earlier filed an appeal against the order of the High Court Division concerning medical examination of detainees to the Appellate Division, which was dismissed by the Appellate Division. However, in Rahman's case, the High Court Division chose to ignore its own jurisprudence, once again affirming Rahman's allegation, which he made when he was produced first in the Court, that the judiciary in Bangladesh is acting as directed by the government and that it is no more independent.

The AHRC therefore wishes to recall its earlier statements regarding the vindictive arrest and arbitrary detention of Rahman. The AHRC once again wishes to urge domestic and international civil society groups, as well as the UN Special Rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to intervene in this case.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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