Bangladesh: Two Secret Detentions, War Crimes Executions and Financing of the Bangladesh Cafe Attack

August 23, 2016

Why are the sons of two Bangladesh opposition politicians being secretly detained by the country’s law enforcement authorities, and what will happen to them?

Over two weeks ago, on the morning of August 4, 33-year-old businessman Hummam Quader Chowdhury, the son of the late Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was taken from his caras it stopped at traffic lights close to the magistrate’s court in Old Dhaka.

Six days later, 32-year-old Supreme Court lawyer Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, the son of Mir Quasem Ali, leader of the other main opposition party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, was also picked up by law enforcement authorities from his house late at night.

Bangladesh’s various policing and intelligence bodies all deny knowledge or involvement in the pick ups of the two men and their continuing unlawful detention. The Wire, however, has confirmed that both men are being held in state custody, and also that Bangladeshi authorities have informed the US government of their detentions.

It should of course be of no surprise that the state agencies deny knowledge of their detention, as to do so would be to admit that they are operating outside the law. The Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 requires the police to bring the men to court within 24 hours of detention, and only detain them further following a magistrate’s order – none of which has happened.

Secret detentions are no longer uncommon in Bangladesh…

http://thewire.in/61120/bangladesh-secret-detentions/

http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/annul-death-sentence-quasem-1274524

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/war-crimes-convicts-son-detained-in-bangladesh-family/1/747104.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bangladesh-police-abduct-top-islamist-leaders-son-family-111631171.html

http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/ghulam-azams-son-picked-1274188

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20403&LangID=E

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016/08/24/un-human-rights-experts-urge-bangladesh-for-retrial-of-war-criminal-mir-quasem-ali

Mir Quasem’s counsel irks SC

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54746#.V75p0piLTIU

http://nation.com.pk/international/24-Aug-2016/bangladesh-police-accused-of-abducting-ex-ji-chief-s-son

China: Update on 709 crackdown

August 23, 2016

source China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group / 中國維權律師關注組 Facebook

#Freethelawyers #709crackdown

China: UN expert slams China on human rights

August 23, 2016

A UN expert accused China Monday of staging a “pincer movement” to curb the influence of lawyers, activists and non-governmental organisations and limit their ability to protest against abuses.

While China has made significant progress towards its ambitious goal of eliminating poverty by 2020, it has often ignored the harm done to individuals as it pursues greater economic development, said Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

At the same time, he said, Beijing has cracked down on civil society, limiting the space for individuals and groups to influence public policy and air grievances.

Since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, the ruling Communist Party has arrested hundreds of activists and lawyers in a sweeping campaign that has closed avenues for the legal activism which emerged in recent years.

Recently introduced laws have combined with police action against protesters and lawyers in “a pincer movement designed to systematically narrow and control the space for citizens to express discontent over matters such as land rights, workers’ rights and environmental threats”, Alston wrote in a statement.

…

http://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1433434/expert-slams-china-human-rights

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402&LangID=E#sthash.fqgWExwD.dpuf

http://www.hrichina.org/en/press-work/hric-bulletin/un-expert-chinese-government-needs-genuine-accountability

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/08/24/un-expert-slams-china-on-human-rights-amid-crackdown-on-lawyers-activists-ngos/

#Freethelawyers #709crackdown

Pakistan: Lawyers stage protests across country

August 23, 2016

Protesting against the Quetta bloodshed, lawyers on Monday staged a sit-in in front of the Parliament House and carried out protests across the country. Their protest will continue today (Tuesday), says a press release.

The sit-in in Islamabad witnessed total disharmony as black coats lacked a unified strategy to force the federal and provincial governments toto unmask the attackers.

The grouping among the black coats led to an apparent failed protest in the federal capital as no proper arrangements of sound system were made for the speeches of the speakers to address some 400 lawyers who were called upon by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

The speakers had to make speeches on mega phones and there was no arrangement of water. Barrister Ali Zafar, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Asma Jehangir took different lines, though they are from the same group.

Ali Zafar was critical of the government and did not try to blame the security agencies, while Asma Jehangir termed the Quetta blast as the failure of the agencies. She said that they came to protest in front of Parliament so that it could constitute a committee, including lawyers.

She said people of Balochistan were in deep shock and grief and looking for justice, adding that the Parliamentary Committee should be assigned the task to at least determine the people responsible for the Quetta blast.

Taking a different turn, Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Abdul Ghani Khilji said he has nothing to do with the statement of Indian Premier Narendra Modi. He said in Pakistan eight agencies are operating but if such an incident took place, questions arose on their performance.

He went on to say that target killers are arrested in the country but not a single handler of the suicide bomber arrested so far. Ghani made the statement when four to five lawyers constantly chanted slogan “Friend of Modi is traitor”, while other were shouting “Lawyers’ blood will not go waste”.

…

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/144617-Lawyers-stage-protests-across-country

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/78392/

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1167910/boycotting-courts-lawyers-protest-quetta-bomb-blast/

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/22/481253/Pakistan-Quetta-bomb-blast-

http://dailytimes.com.pk/islamabad/23-Aug-16/legal-fraternity-to-observe-sept-8-as-black-day

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/144464-Lawyers-boycott-courts-over-slow-Quetta-bombing-probe

http://nation.com.pk/national/23-Aug-2016/black-coats-out-against-quetta-carnage

http://aaj.tv/2016/08/lawyers-boycott-court-proceedings-against-quetta-massacre/

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/aba_expresses_concern_about_assassination_of_bar_president_in_pakistan_suic

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1168690/quetta-carnage-attack-intelligentsia/

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/lawyers-continue-strike-in-pak-s-balochistan-over-compensation-116082401544_1.html

http://dailytimes.com.pk/features/24-Aug-16/crisis-as-quetta-blast-shatters-the-justice-system-in-balochistan

Pakistan Lawyers killed in Quetta suicide attack

https://www.strategypage.com/qnd/india/articles/20160825.aspx

Egypt: Court renews detention of activists Zizo Abdo, Haitham Mohamedain, Hamdy Qeshta

August 23, 2016

The South Giza Court renewed on Monday the detention of political activists Zizo Abdo, Haitham Mohamedain, and Hamdy Qeshta for an additional 15 days pending investigations, according to lawyer Mokhtar Mounier.

The three activists were arrested on accusations of unlicensed protesting, spreading false news, and belonging to an outlawed group.

Abdo was arrested on 5 May with lawyer Malek Adly. Qeshta was arrested from a protest against the transfer of the sovereignty of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia in the Boluq Al-Dakror district on 25 April, and leftist lawyer Mohamedain was arrested on 21 April during nationwide security raids that took place prior to the 25 April demonstration.

The prisoners are suffering under poor conditions in prison due to being kept in unhygienic cells and prevented from receiving proper medical treatment. They are also not provided clean food and water or warm clothes and blankets in winter.

The island protests were followed by mass arrests of demonstrators and activists as well as arbitrary arrests of bystanders on the streets and in coffee shops.

Some people were arrested from their homes in a wide-spread security sweep in advance of the protests.

http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2016/08/22/court-renews-detention-activists-zizo-abdo-haitham-mohamedain-hamdy-qeshta/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-dooley/high-price-for-exposing-d_b_11664958.html

http://anhri.net/?p=172830&lang=en

(N.B. Haitham Mohamedain is also a labour lawyer)

Egypt: International lawyers sign petition calling for release of lawyer Malek Adly

August 22, 2016

A number of international lawyers signed a petition on Monday calling on Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar to release prominent human rights lawyer Malek Adly who has been kept for over three months in solitary confinement.

The lawyers referred to the deteriorated condition of Adly in detention and how it violates prison regulations according to the law. The petition called on the state to improve the conditions of the lawyer in prison to meet the standards of Egyptian law.

In the petition, the lawyers called on the EU as well as individual governments of EU member states “to take immediate steps to put pressure on Egyptian authorities to end practices of abduction, torture, and abuse against detainees”.

They also praised the decision of the Italian senate to halt military aid to Egypt, which came as repercussions following the still unsolved murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo.

Adly was arrested on 5 May after a month-long campaign against the maritime demarcation agreement that saw the transfer of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabian sovereignty. He is charged with attempting to overthrow the regime, spreading false information, and inciting protests.

http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2016/08/22/international-lawyers-sign-petition-calling-release-lawyer-malek-adly/

THE PETITION — PLEASE SIGN!

https://www.change.org/p/egyptian-minister-of-the-interior-release-egyptian-lawyer-malek-adly

http://www.idhae.org/observatoire-fr-page4.1.egy160822.htm (FRANCAIS)