The Kafkaesque judicial nightmare of Bangladesh dissident Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury continues.
Ami Isseroff
******
Memo to Bangladeshi Metropolitan Session Judge Mohammad Momin Ullah:
By Judi McLeod Tuesday, March 11, 2008
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2198
Memo to Mohammed Momin Ullah, Metropolitan Session Judge, Dhaka,
Bangladesh: "We know. Canada Free Press (CFP) knows that the charges
brought up against Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
by the previous Islamist alliance government in Bangladesh, come up in
your court, tomorrow."
And publications with much more international influence than CFP know
that a lone journalist who forecast the rise of radical Islam in
Bangladesh will stand in your court just when world attention is focused
on other matters.
Choudhury, who stands charged with treason, sedition and blasphemy, has
friends in the United States of America, including Congressman Mark Kirk
(R-IL) and Professor Richard Benkin, who were promised by
then-Bangladeshi Ambassador to Washington Shamsher M. Chowdhury that
self-described "Muslim Zionist" Shoaib Choudhury would have all charges
dropped against him.
Courageous Choudhury has Canadian friends in his corner, notably
including the Honourable Irwin Cotler (MP Mount Royal), a world-renowned
humanitarian and civil-rights scholar, and one of the best and brightest
legal minds in the English-speaking world, who now stands as Choudhury's
counsel.
With American attention on disgraced Eliot Spitzer and the fierce fight
between Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama, Choudhury faces a trial whose penalties include only execution or
imprisonment.
These are the words on the official document demanding Choudhury's March
12th court appearance:
"The State Prosecution has brought allegation (s) against you,
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury stating that, being the editor and owner of
Blitz newspaper, you sent an article titled, `Hello Tel Aviv' to USA
Today newspaper published from Washington. Furthermore, in 2003, while
attempting to travel to Israel to attend a conference titled `Education
towards Culture of Peace', organized between 1st December to 3rd
December 2003, you appeared at the Zia International Airport on the 29th
November 2003 and the Immigration police arrested you and found the copy
of the speech you prepared to deliver in the conference. In that
speech, you have made offensive comments on (the) Muslim world, Islam
and Muslims in Bangladesh and commented about (the) existence of al
Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups, by which you have tarnished
the image of Bangladesh in the outside world. Furthermore, you have
made (a) conspiracy of spreading anti-state news through that speech and
you by sending that speech to (the) outside world, you have played (an)
offensive role to Bangladesh's security, public discipline and adverse
role towards Bangladesh's relations with the outside world. In you
(sic) report, you have mentioned about guerilla training in the
Bangladeshi madrassas, by which you have influenced the religious
sentiments and made imaginary stories abroad about jihadist training in
favor of Laden (sic), Arafat and Saddam, by which you have put
Bangladesh's foreign relations to threat and through this you have
caused offense under Penal Code section 505 (A), 295 (A) and 120 (B).
"The allegations were read before the accused and he claimed to be
innocent (not guilty) and prayed for justice."
In his response to Metropolitan Session Judge Md. Momin Ullah, Choudhury
wrote, "it is well known to the international community and even to the
Bangladeshi government that there are guerilla trainings in various
Madrassas in the country.
"The previous government captured a few hundred such elements from
various Madrassas belonging to an Islamist terrorist group named JMB.
The kingpins of this group were accorded the death penalty by
Bangladeshi courts and were subsequently hanged.
"But I am facing the charges of forecasting the existence of such
elements in Bangladeshi Madrassas. Why?
"I have never sent any article titled `Hello Tel Aviv', nor was it ever
printed in any US or international newspaper. This is a bogus and
imaginary allegation brought against me by the government. The
prosecution does not have any evidence of such allegation."
Choudhury asks "How many more years will I have to suffer from these
false and ridiculous charges?
"I am continuing to spend money and energy in this case since 2003. Is
it justice to let an innocent journalist suffer for years, just because
he forecasted the rise of radical Islam and confronted it?"
Choudhury, who was beaten, imprisoned, denied medication for glaucoma,
forbidden to attend his mother's funeral, had his office bombed and his
children followed to school, has spent hundreds of hours preparing for
and attending court sessions which the government promised to drop.
"People keep asking me what is it that the Bangladeshi government
wants," says Choudhury.
"They want to appease the Islamists by continuing the case and even by
convicting me. Many of the top policymakers of the governments are
angry with me because I am a Zionist and I continue to defend Jews and
Christians as well as combating radical Islam. They are also angry with
me because I demand relations between Israel and Muslim nations."
Choudhury fully understands the possibilities of a horrific fate
tomorrow before the Bangladeshi court with international attention
turned elsewhere.
"Please pray for me on March 12," he asked friends living in the free
world on the eve of his court appearance.
But even though Bangladeshi Islamists have continued the harassment of
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury at will, they at least cannot count on the
privilege of finishing the job off under cover of darkness.
CFP and others, who know, await the outcome.
__._,_.___ By Judi McLeod Tuesday, March 11, 2008
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2198
Memo to Mohammed Momin Ullah, Metropolitan Session Judge, Dhaka,
Bangladesh: "We know. Canada Free Press (CFP) knows that the charges
brought up against Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
by the previous Islamist alliance government in Bangladesh, come up in
your court, tomorrow."
And publications with much more international influence than CFP know
that a lone journalist who forecast the rise of radical Islam in
Bangladesh will stand in your court just when world attention is focused
on other matters.
Choudhury, who stands charged with treason, sedition and blasphemy, has
friends in the United States of America, including Congressman Mark Kirk
(R-IL) and Professor Richard Benkin, who were promised by
then-Bangladeshi Ambassador to Washington Shamsher M. Chowdhury that
self-described "Muslim Zionist" Shoaib Choudhury would have all charges
dropped against him.
Courageous Choudhury has Canadian friends in his corner, notably
including the Honourable Irwin Cotler (MP Mount Royal), a world-renowned
humanitarian and civil-rights scholar, and one of the best and brightest
legal minds in the English-speaking world, who now stands as Choudhury's
counsel.
With American attention on disgraced Eliot Spitzer and the fierce fight
between Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama, Choudhury faces a trial whose penalties include only execution or
imprisonment.
These are the words on the official document demanding Choudhury's March
12th court appearance:
"The State Prosecution has brought allegation (s) against you,
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury stating that, being the editor and owner of
Blitz newspaper, you sent an article titled, `Hello Tel Aviv' to USA
Today newspaper published from Washington. Furthermore, in 2003, while
attempting to travel to Israel to attend a conference titled `Education
towards Culture of Peace', organized between 1st December to 3rd
December 2003, you appeared at the Zia International Airport on the 29th
November 2003 and the Immigration police arrested you and found the copy
of the speech you prepared to deliver in the conference. In that
speech, you have made offensive comments on (the) Muslim world, Islam
and Muslims in Bangladesh and commented about (the) existence of al
Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups, by which you have tarnished
the image of Bangladesh in the outside world. Furthermore, you have
made (a) conspiracy of spreading anti-state news through that speech and
you by sending that speech to (the) outside world, you have played (an)
offensive role to Bangladesh's security, public discipline and adverse
role towards Bangladesh's relations with the outside world. In you
(sic) report, you have mentioned about guerilla training in the
Bangladeshi madrassas, by which you have influenced the religious
sentiments and made imaginary stories abroad about jihadist training in
favor of Laden (sic), Arafat and Saddam, by which you have put
Bangladesh's foreign relations to threat and through this you have
caused offense under Penal Code section 505 (A), 295 (A) and 120 (B).
"The allegations were read before the accused and he claimed to be
innocent (not guilty) and prayed for justice."
In his response to Metropolitan Session Judge Md. Momin Ullah, Choudhury
wrote, "it is well known to the international community and even to the
Bangladeshi government that there are guerilla trainings in various
Madrassas in the country.
"The previous government captured a few hundred such elements from
various Madrassas belonging to an Islamist terrorist group named JMB.
The kingpins of this group were accorded the death penalty by
Bangladeshi courts and were subsequently hanged.
"But I am facing the charges of forecasting the existence of such
elements in Bangladeshi Madrassas. Why?
"I have never sent any article titled `Hello Tel Aviv', nor was it ever
printed in any US or international newspaper. This is a bogus and
imaginary allegation brought against me by the government. The
prosecution does not have any evidence of such allegation."
Choudhury asks "How many more years will I have to suffer from these
false and ridiculous charges?
"I am continuing to spend money and energy in this case since 2003. Is
it justice to let an innocent journalist suffer for years, just because
he forecasted the rise of radical Islam and confronted it?"
Choudhury, who was beaten, imprisoned, denied medication for glaucoma,
forbidden to attend his mother's funeral, had his office bombed and his
children followed to school, has spent hundreds of hours preparing for
and attending court sessions which the government promised to drop.
"People keep asking me what is it that the Bangladeshi government
wants," says Choudhury.
"They want to appease the Islamists by continuing the case and even by
convicting me. Many of the top policymakers of the governments are
angry with me because I am a Zionist and I continue to defend Jews and
Christians as well as combating radical Islam. They are also angry with
me because I demand relations between Israel and Muslim nations."
Choudhury fully understands the possibilities of a horrific fate
tomorrow before the Bangladeshi court with international attention
turned elsewhere.
"Please pray for me on March 12," he asked friends living in the free
world on the eve of his court appearance.
But even though Bangladeshi Islamists have continued the harassment of
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury at will, they at least cannot count on the
privilege of finishing the job off under cover of darkness.
CFP and others, who know, await the outcome.
*****************************************
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