Bangladesh rights activists Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan were released on bail Sunday evening after being in prison since Sept. 14 in a cybercrime case.
Khan is the founder and secretary of Odhikar, a human rights organization internationally known for documenting thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. Elan is the organization’s director.
Khan told VOA on Monday that Odhikar’s work would continue “as usual.”
“Since it was founded in 1994, Odhikar has worked exposing human rights violations in the country," Khan said. “The prosecution failed to prove the charges against us for which we were convicted and jailed. We have become victims of judicial injustice. We never provided any false information in any of our reports.”
‘Distorted’ report
On May 6, 2013, while trying to disperse an Islamic group protest in Dhaka, several protesters were killed by security forces.
According to an Odhikar fact-finding report, at least 61 people were killed that day.
Putting the death toll at 11, government prosecutors filed a criminal case against Khan and Elan, claiming the activists compiled a "distorted" fact-finding report.
Ten years later on Sept. 14, 2023, the court pronounced Khan and Elan guilty and sentenced them to two years each in prison. They were also fined $91 each.
Their imprisonment sparked outrage among human rights groups around the world.
In a joint statement, 39 international rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Amnesty International urged Bangladesh authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the activists, “as they have been detained solely for their human rights work."
Days after their sentence, Khan and Elan appealed to the High Court, which granted them bail on Oct. 10. But it took five days for the court order to reach prison authorities. An appeal hearing of their sentence is pending. The court stayed the $91 fine until the appeal is resolved. In the meantime, the state has filed an appeal seeking enhancement of the activists’ punishment.
‘Defending rights’
In addition to extrajudicial killings, Odhikar has reported on thousands of enforced disappearances, cases of torture in custody, and other human rights violations committed by security forces while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in office.
In 2022, the government accused Odhikar of spreading "propaganda against the state by publishing misleading information" on its website and canceled the organization’s operating license.
Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, a consultant at Australia-based Capital Punishment Justice Project, said Khan and Elan’s conviction and imprisonment were key examples of Bangladesh authorities using the judiciary to punish independent human rights defenders.
“The Sheikh Hasina regime has long established a pattern of silencing dissidents and the opposition using the judiciary that has been massively infiltrated with her political loyalists,” he told VOA.
