Dhaka, June 18: A former Army Officer, convicted of
involvement in the 1975 assassination of Bangladesh's founder
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, arrived home today from the US after a
court there rejected his appeal to stay back and was
immediately sent to a high-security jail here.
US homeland security agents escorted sacked Lieutenant
Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed and handed over to Bangladesh
authorities as a Thai Airways aircraft brought him home
to face justice.
Immigration police arrested him immediately on arrival.
Television footages showed that cordoned by security
officials, Ahmed was hastily guided to a prison van which
brought him to downtown Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate's (CMM) court.
Several vehicles of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB) troops and armed police escorted the prison
van to the CMM court where a magistrate after a brief hearing
ordered him to be kept at a cell earmarked for prisoners
convicted with death penalties. Jail officials received him at
the high-security Dhaka central jail.
Witnesses said tight security was enforced around Dhaka's
Zia International Airport and the court premises which the
police evacuated earlier for a brief period allowing only
several lawyers and journalists to stay in.
The exact time, route and flight carrying the convict
were kept secret earlier for "security reasons" as the
foreign affairs adviser of interim cabinet yesterday said that
a federal US court eventually cleared his way home.
The US authorities, earlier, denied him asylum status in
the US after Ahmed fled the country when Awami League returned
to power in 1996 after 21 years in political wilderness and
initiated the delayed trial process.
US authorities, earlier, denied his asylum status
in the United States after Ahmed fled the country when Awami
League returned to power in 1996 after 21 years in political
wilderness and initiated the delayed trial process.
A total of 12 people, all former army officers, were
condemned to death, but only four of them faced it in person
as others, including Mohiuddin, were tried in absentia as
they were believed to have fled the country after the 1996
elections.
The case is now pending before the appellate division
of the supreme court following the endorsement of the judgment
by the high court.
Mohiuddin first went to the United States on a
visitor's visa in 1996 and applied to remain there
permanently.
One of the convicts dismissed major Bazlul Huda was
returned from Thailand after Dhaka and Bangkok signed an
extradition treaty to bring him back.
The four to await in jail are sacked Lieutenant
Colonels Syed Farook Rahman, Shahriar Rashid Khan and
Mohiuddin Ahmed (artillery) and dismissed Major Bazlul Huda.
The foreign office in Dhaka earlier confirmed the
natural death of one of the fugitives sacked Lieutenant
Colonel Aziz Pasha in Zimbabwe but said the government was not
aware of the whereabouts other absconders believed to be
hiding in other countries with Interpol issuing "red alert"
seeking to track them.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, June 18, 2007, 00:00