A Ph.D. student at Michigan State University said his mother was arrested in Bangladesh after he criticized the country’s government in a Facebook post.
Tanzilur Rahman, who is pursuing his doctorate in materials science and engineering, said his mother, 58, was arrested by the Bangladesh Police on Sunday. Three days before, he posted his thoughts on the Bangladesh government’s role in the war crime trials of a prominent preacher and leader in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, a major Islamist political party in the country.
“As a son, it is very upsetting that, because of your opinion, your mother has been detained. It’s really upsetting,” Rahman told NBC News.
Court documents translated by NBC News said that Rahman’s mother, Anisa Siddika, was arrested at 11:40 a.m. at her parents’ home and charged with “planning to sabotage various vital installations, conspiracies, and sabotage against the government in protest against the arrest of multiple leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.” Rahman said he had hired an attorney to work on the case and obtain these documents.
Siddika was charged under the Special Powers Act of 1974 after police said they were patrolling the area based on “secret information” and learned that political leaders and activists were at the home. The documents alleged that Siddika had arranged secret meetings against the government, which Rahman said was a baseless claim. She was denied bail because the police said she would “abscond,” according to the documents.
In his Facebook post, Rahman, 30, questioned the 2013 trial and sentencing of Islamic leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee and the disappearance of a key witness for his defense. Sayedee was charged with rape, murder and the persecution of Hindus during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. He died in prison last week, which prompted mass protests, Al Jazeera reported.
Rahman believes his Aug. 17 post was the real reason for his mother’s arrest.
“I don’t…
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