Dhaka, Sep 15: The ruling Awami League leaders have urged the United States and the European Union for not supporting the internationally acclaimed human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan for his alleged falsehood.
Addressing a peace rally, the AL leaders made the comment in the rally what it called ‘Protesting against the BNP-Jamaat’s anarchy’.
They said Adilur, general secretary of rights organisation Odhikar, spread falsehood and tarnished the country’s image on the global map.
‘The European Union is talking in the language of BNP,’ said AL presidium member Abdur Razzaque while speaking as chief guest at the rally on Bangabandhu Avenue organised by AL Dhaka South City unit on Friday afternoon.
He also urged the EU to send a team to examine Adilur’s conviction as the party had all proves against him.
Going down heavily on BNP, he said that the BNP was trying to come to power through conspiracy, but that was not going to happen in this country.
AL joint general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif questioned why the EU and the US shocked over the sentence of Adilur.
‘Adilur said that 61 people were killed in the Hefazat Islam’s incident in 2013. Of them, 11 people spoke to the journalists,’ Hanif said.
Chaired by AL Dhaka South City unit president Abu Ahmed Mannafi, its general secretary Humayun Kabir conducted the rally.
The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal on Thursday jailed internationally acclaimed human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan and his colleague ASM Nasiruddin Elan for two years for a fact finding report on the violence during Hefazat-e-Islam demonstrations and overnight operations in May 5–6, 2013.
Judge AM Julfikar Hayat also fined them Tk 10,000 each in the case filed with the Gulshan police station in 2013 under Section 57(2) of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.
