In this photo provided by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shows Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, in Los Angeles. Ahmed a former Bangladeshi military officer convicted in absentia for his role in the 1975 assassination of his country's first prime minister has been arrested in Southern California, authorities said Wednesday, March 14, 2007. Ahmed, 60, was arrested Tuesday morning at his Los Angeles home, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley. (AP Photo/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) (AP)DAISY NGUYEN, Los Angeles
A former Bangladeshi military officer convicted in absentia for his role in the 1975 assassination of his country's first prime minister has been arrested, authorities said Wednesday.
Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, 60, was arrested Tuesday morning at his Los Angeles home, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley.
Ahmed had been sought by Bangladesh's government since he and 14 others were convicted in 1998 for the murder of Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman in an Aug. 15, 1975 military coup. All were sentenced to death.
Ahmed was convicted in absentia because he had entered the United States in 1996 on a visitor's visa. He applied for permission to stay in the country permanently but was ordered to return to Bangladesh to face the criminal charges.
The immigration case dragged on for several years as he appealed a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge in 2002. Late last month, a judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied his petition to review the case, allowing the order to stand.
Authorities will begin proceedings to return him to Bangladesh, said Brian DeMore, the immigration enforcement agency's deputy field director.
"This case has been followed very closely by ICE," DeMore said. "After the 9th Circuit denied his petition to review the case, (Ahmed) became a fugitive in the U.S."
It was not immediately known whether Ahmed had an attorney.
Abu Zafar, the consul general of Bangladesh in Los Angeles, said he was not aware of Ahmed's arrest and declined to comment.
U.S. authorities said Ahmed represented the Bangladeshi government in a variety of foreign diplomatic posts in the two decades following Rahman's assassination.
Rahman, popularly known as "Sheikh Mujib," led Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971. He was gunned down at his Dhaka residence by military men who also killed most of his family and a number of trusted aides.
Rahman's killers granted themselves amnesty. They were not brought to trial until Rahman's surviving daughter, Sheik Hasina, became prime minister in 1996. #
Source: Associated Press, March 14, 2007
My father’s name is Mohiuddin AKM Ahmed. In America he is know as Din.
ReplyDeleteMy father is a victim of political revenge and he is being deported to a country known for torture and corruption.
In 1975 he was a young major serving faithfully in the
Bangladesh Army. In 1975 the president of Bangladesh was Sheik Mujibur Rahman. Mujibur ruled by his absolute authority for four and a half years and nobody dared or was allowed to challenge him.
In 1974, Sheik Mujibur declared a national emergency and stopped all democratic activities and ruthlessly suppressed any one who opposed him. There was no freedom of speech, no open politics, most newspapers and publications banned and all fundamental rights were
suspended.
One party rule was introduced in January 1975 and Mujibur became president.
By the summer of ‘75 mass starvation and political murders pushed the military to take action. Bangladesh was on the verge of collapsing with the government stealing all foreign aid. According to Dr. Henry Kissinger, in the early 70s, Bangladesh was “a
bottomless basket” where any foreign aid disappeared.
On August 15th, 1975 my father was on military night maneuvers, a common training practice during his years in the army. But that night his superiors ordered maneuvers in support of what they claimed was a peaceful coup. It was their intention to force the president to step down and turn over power to a caretaker government.
My father obeyed what he considered to be lawful orders from superior officers to set up a roadblock on a main city street more than one mile from one of the presidential homes.
The next morning Din, along with the rest of Bangladesh, learned that during the coup, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and some family members had, regretfully, been killed when the president’s bodyguards fought back the soldiers trying to place Sheikh Mujibur Rahman under military arrest. My father was not in the palace that night. He was a mile away.
After the coup, the country did in fact shift to a democratic government and democracy has been part of Bangladesh since, except for brief subsequent coups and political assassinations. Even the US Government, which had never acknowledged Bangladesh before, immediately established a diplomatic relationship with the post-coup new government in 1975.
Some time after the coup, those involved were absolved by the Government of Bangladesh for any wrongdoing, and many members of the military were promoted in rank or joined the diplomatic service.
In fact, the Bangladeshi government assigned Din to be
posted overseas as part of the diplomatic corp. and he traveled extensively, stationing in various countries such as Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Thailand and others. Throughout all this time, 20 years, Din honored his country as a diplomat with exemplary conduct and extreme dignity. He was Deputy Ambassador of Bangladesh in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, and was the head of the Bangladeshi mission in Iraq from 1993 to 1996. His Iraq assignment was the equivalent of Ambassador.
But then the political winds shifted. In 1996, in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, the surviving daughter of the president who was killed in 1975, came to power and promised “justice” [revenge] against anybody who was involved in the coup of ’75, regardless of their actual involvement, and regardless of the constitution that prohibited punishment against members in the military present during that ’75 coup. A double standard is apparent here as some high-ranking officials, involved in the ‘75 coup, are now part of Sheikh Hasina’s political party and therefore are still living in freedom in Bangladesh.
Din, along with several other men accused of the murder, was tried in absentia in 1996. Yes, it is true, that my father could have gone back to Bangladesh to try and defend himself but he knew he would not be safe and would not get a fair trial. I know it’s hard for Americans to understand but, sadly, my country is very corrupt
and so poor that eyewitness testimony can be bought for as little as one hundred dollars. And when the trial is politically stacked against you even the defense lawyers are either biased against those whom they are charged with defending, or in danger for their advocacy. It was widely reported then that even a few members of the defense team who were strenuously defending the accused were publicly threatened by the Awami league, and agitated members of the public stripped and beat those lawyers in the courthouse.
Besides the false testimony supplied by paid witnesses, other witnesses could not recall, 20 years later, who was or who was not in the palace that dark night. In fact some witnesses claimed my father was in the palace but then realized that they were actually referring to a different man, with the same name as my father, but
with a different rank. Various witnesses even recalled my father as being in more than one place at once.
Din was lawfully present in the United States when he applied for political asylum under the United Nations Torture Convention because his life and his family were in danger, given the unstable political situation back home. Meanwhile Sheikh Hasina dismissed all the judges assigned to the case of the ’75 coup and appointed her own judges de facto creating a kangaroo court which sentenced Din to be hanged.
Din then followed the bureaucratic path of political asylum under the immigration laws of the US, and under the United Nations Convention. Everything seemed to be proceeding well until 9/11. After that date, with the rapid passage of the Patriot Act and the creation of Homeland Security, my father was excluded from the protection granted by the immigration laws and the torture convention. During the ten year fight to stay in America my father never broke any laws in this country. He is a gentle and peaceful soul who has worked within the US courts system to fight deportation to a country known for torture and corruption.
Clearly my father is a scapegoat in a much larger political game in both the US and in Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina fanned the flames by calling Din a “terrorist”, knowing how much the American government dreads this term, to get Din extradited and finally hang him.
Sadly, my country of Bangladesh is currently in crisis once again. As recently as January 27 people have been killed in political riots and assassinations. It is a highly charged situation and my father has no hope in surviving upon his return. Even according to the most recent US State Department Report on Human Rights, Bangladesh is plagued by torture and political murders. Sheikh Hasina and her political party want revenge, without regard for the truth.
My father has no one to help him. He honorably served the military for nine years and as a diplomat for another 20 years, throughout eight successive administrations of Bangladesh governments. My father is not a terrorist and is guilty of nothing except trusting in a system blinded by politics.
If the US insists on deporting my father he will continue the fight in Bangladesh. He will face his accusers and reopen the case. Major political and military officials will be forced to take the stand and the truth will finally come out. I hope everyone, who is interested in the truth, will spread the word in Bangladesh that my father is ready for the fight. This is far from over. In fact it’s just began.
Rouben Mohiuddin
3/17/07
I am an American of Bangladesh descent. I am also a great supporter of our country's War on Terrorism. I think the current world is facing a dangerous period under the ominous shadow of ever expanding global Islamic jihadism.
ReplyDeleteI am writing this letter to you concerning an important issue engendered by your action to block the deportation of a convicted killer Major Mohiuddin A.K.M Ahmed to Bangladesh. He was an active conspirator and participant in a military coup on August 15, 1975, that overthrew the legitimate government of the time and brutally assassinated the country's then president and founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with members of his immediate family and other associates. Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed and his co-conspirators did not spare 10 year old child or a new born baby.
As reward for their role to kill the founder of Bangladesh and his family and to overthrow his government the conspirators including Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed received important diplomatic assignments and escaped justice. An Indemnity Ordinance was even issued by the military rulers of Bangladesh that forbade prosecution of these assassins.
We came to know Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed was carrying a Pakistani passport while living in the United States. It also came to our knowledge that Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed's co-conspirators, the few other accused killers of the Bangladeshi leader's family were in close ties with the Talebans of Afghanistan. It is quite evident that Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed and his cohorts had an Islamist agenda when they staged the coup against a secular nationalist political leadership of Bangladesh on August 15, 1975.
In late 1996, an elected Parliament overwhelmingly reversed that Indemnity Act and the killers were brought to trial. Hundreds testified in a legitimate court of law where he was found guilty of murder in 1998. A lawyer was provided to this fugitive and the court proceedings were monitored by international agencies and foreign governments including the United States. He has been a fugitive from justice since 1996 until the U.S. law enforcement agencies finally arrested him in LA a few days ago.
He must face justice. He is a criminal and it would be unethical for the U. S. to provide him a safe haven in the U. S. or allow him to escape to a third country. He should be deported to Bangladesh to face justice.
As a conscientious American citizen, I urge you to take action that will see that justice is done and bring closure to a dark chapter in Bangladesh's history. Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed and his co-conspirators did not give same constitutional protections that he is seeking to the people he so brutally murdered.
Sincerely,
Adel Ahmed