A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced two leading human rights activists to two years each in jail, after a trial critics say is part of a government crackdown ahead of elections.
Adilur Rahman Khan, 63, and Nasiruddin Elan, 57, have led the Odhikar organisation for decades, working to document thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances of opposition activists, and police brutalities.
They “were sentenced to two years in prison”, Judge Zulfiker Hayat told the court.
The criminal charges against Khan and Elan related to a fact-finding report they compiled 10 years ago on extrajudicial killings.
“They were sentenced to two years in jail for publishing and circulating false information, hurting religious sentiments and undermining the image of the state,” prosecutor Nazrul Islam Shamim told AFP.
Both men were in the court in Dhaka for their sentencing, as well as several foreign diplomats.
As police took them from the court to Dhaka Central Jail, Khan was seen thrusting his clenched fist in defiance from the door of a security van.
The pair’s lawyers plan to appeal.
Several Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh ahead of general elections due before the end of January, where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.
“This verdict will send a chilling message to the human rights defenders in the country and make their work enormously difficult,” Nur Khan Liton, a former head of another of the country’s leading human rights organisations, told AFP.
