British High Commission seeks consular access to Shafik Rehman

British High Commission seeks consular access to Shafik Rehman
May 24 13:36 2016 Print This Article

The British High Commission in Dhaka has sought consular access to veteran journalist Shafik Rahman, who was arrested in April on charge of attempted abduction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

“We have been providing support to Mr Rehman’s family and pressing for consular access to him since we were first made aware of his arrest,” a spokesperson for the high commission told ABC News Reports.

“We are concerned that we still have not been granted access to Mr Rehman and have raised this issue at the senior level of Bangladesh government.”

Meanwhile, diplomatic sources said British High Commissioner Alison Blake met Foreign Affairs Minister AH Mahmood Ali at his ministry office on Tuesday morning.

Blake raised the issue with the foreign minister and expressed her concern that they had yet to get the consular access to Shafik, they said.

Shafik, who holds citizenship of both Bangladesh and the UK, was picked up by plainclothesmen from his house in Eskaton, Dhaka on April 16.

A US court sentenced JaSaS leader Mamun’s son Rizve Ahmed Caesar on March 4, 2015, for bribing a former FBI special agent in New York for confidential information on Joy.

Police say he was physically present at a meeting on January 29, 2012 with Rizve Ahmed Caesar, son BNP cultural wing JaSaS leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun, and former FBI agent Robert Lustyik where they allegedly conspired to abduct and kill Joy.

On April 19, the Detective Branch of police claimed that they had found documents from the FBI that contained information on Joy during a raid in Shafik’s home.

On April 24, DMP spokesperson Monirul Islam, head of Counter Terrorism and Transnational crime unit, said Shafik disclosed the names of three people who were involved in the plot to abduct and kill the prime minister’s son.

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