24 September 2024
Dr. Muhammad Yunus
Chief Advisor
Interim Government of Bangladesh
We write as human rights activists and human rights defenders across Europe and beyond to express our deepest concern regarding the arrest of Mr. Shahriar Kabir, a reputed freelance journalist in Bangladesh, a documentary filmmaker, a writer, a humanist, and above all- an uncompromising human rights activist. Mr. Kabir was the President of the Forum for Secular Bangladesh, and we highly praise his human rights activism and his work for a secular South Asia.
We are aware of the political crisis in Bangladesh that have been escalating since July 2024 that resulted into the regime change and eventually followed by taking over power by the current Interim Government headed by Noble Peace Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus as its Chief Adviser. Within a week of the new regime, on 15 September, Mr Shahriar Kabir, aged 73, was arrested from his home on a fictitious political case. We condemn the way in which Mr. Kabir has been implicated in the case and was arrested from his home despite the Interim Government’s commitment not to harass and arrest anyone in any political cases without proper legal investigation. It was surprising to us that since the new regime of Dr. Yunus came to power, multiple criminal cases have been filed including one at the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh accusing Shahriar Kabir of crimes against humanity and genocide, who himself had been prominently vocal all his life against international crimes taking place in any corner of the world.
We further condemn his treatment at the court where he was physically attacked by the mob in the presence of law enforcement personnel. It is shocking that his appeal for a wheelchair, due to his advanced age and physical condition, was ignored both by the police and the court. Also surprising is that the court sanctioned against him 7 (seven) days of “remand”, a tool of enhanced interrogation and torture commonly used by police, and accordingly handed him over to the Police for “questioning”. We are very concerned about the treatment Mr Kabir may receive under the partisan police and jail authority of Bangladesh, known for their poor track record of human rights.
We strongly urge that Mr Shahriar Kabir is treated as per the norms of international human rights law, which the current Interim Government of Bangladesh has pledged to comply. We further urge you to take legal action against all those who defiled his image and dignity at the court premises, supposedly a safe place for any person in conflict with law.
We jointly urge the government of Bangladesh to –
- Ensure his dignity and human rights
- Release him on bail immediately and to release him from all the baseless politically motivated cases
- Avail all medical facilities, including a wheelchair for his movement
- Ensure him full and unfettered access to his legal counsel, and
- Ensure his family members and colleagues have full visitation rights.
We urge all institutions of Bangladesh to respect and observe the international human rights law.
Signed:
Paulo Casaca, Executive Director, South Asian Democratic Forum, Portugal
Tarik Günersel, Member of Advisory Board of PEN International Writers for Peace Committee, Turkey
Dr Helen Jarvis, Life Member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Cambodia
Mona Haghgou, Strindberg Attorney at law, Sweden
Professor Rafal Pankowski, Sociologist, cofounder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, Warsaw, Poland
Natalia Sineaeva, Genocide scholar and minority rights defender, Warsaw, Poland
Chris Blackburn, Activist, UK
René Liebenthal, Economist, Argentina
Jami Aslam, Lawyer, Switzerland
Dušan Gojkov, Balkan Literary Herald, PEN Arman, Serbia – Greece
Tapas Das, Assistant Professor, India
Dr Rayhan Rashid, Trustee, International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF), United Kingdom
Banafsheh Zand, Journalist, Iran
Nicholas Kawinga, A poet from Lusaka, Zambia
Matthew Johnsen, Human Rights Activist, United States of America
Vladimir Bogdanić, Secretary General, Zagreb, Republic of Croatia
Sanjib Bharatia, Human Rights Defender, India
Zeynep Oral, President, PEN Türkiye.
Dr. Gregory H., Stanton Founding President, Genocide Watch Chair, The Alliance Against Genocide
Sirajum Munira Ph.D., Fellow, Warsaw University of Technology
Dipak Chakraborty, Humanist, Human Rights Activist, India
Jamil Maqsood, President, Committee on Foreign Affairs, UKPNP
Hon. Professor Gill H. Boehringer, Australia
Bidit Dey, Associate Professor, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Sabbir Khan, Computer engineer, Sweden
Dr Tommaso Virgili, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany
Afsana Kishwar, Writer and Activist, Canada
Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi Secular, Feminist, Activist, and Writer in Exile, India
Dr. Ahmed Ziauddin, International Law Expert, Belgium
Dr. Nowrin, Tamanna University of Reading, United Kingdom
Sheema Karmani, Founder, Tehrik-e-Niswan, Pakistan
Ms. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Ph.D., Executive Director of Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention
Sam Tahmassebi, Lawyer, Adjunct professor, University of Utah Salt Lake City, USA
Ken Mc Cue, Director, European Department
Dr. Harry Edwards, International Foundation Sport for Human Rights
Panayote Dimitras, Greek Helsinki Monitor
Wendy Via, Co-founder//CEO and President Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
Alexander Verkhovskiy, Director of SOVA Research Center, Russia
Jose Maria Sarri, Journalist, Spain Geert Ates UNITED for Intercultural Action, Netherlands
John Feffer, director, Foreign Policy In Focus, USA
Daniel Semeniworima, journalist and peacebuilder, Nigeria
Dr Lakhu Luhana, Chairman, World Sindhi Congress
