Public
Interest Lawyers (PIL) has issued an application for judicial review over the
UK’s failure to take effective steps to end the brutal torture of Salauddin
Quader Chowdhury, a leading opposition figure in Bangladesh and its most senior
politician.
Mr
Chowdhury, who is 63 years old and suffers from a serious heart condition, was
arrested ten weeks ago. He has been tortured relentlessly ever since by
the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a shadowy paramilitary unit trained by the UK
out of the Foreign Office’s counter-terrorism budget. RAB has been described by
Human Rights Watch as a “government death squad”.
The
UK’s Role
As
reported in The Guardian, the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables published in
December exposed the UK’s training of RAB despite the United States’ serious
concerns over the units systematic abuse of human rights. The US,
in line with its legal obligations, refused to deal with RAB in any way, but
noted that the UK was training it under the auspices of the National Policing
Improvement Agency. This is despite repeated statements to Parliament by
Foreign Office Ministers highlighting the “serious concerns about reports of
extra judicial killings and torture by the Rapid Action Battalion and the
civilian police”.
Torture
and “Crossfire”
RAB
is known to be responsible for hundreds of extra-judicial killings since it was
established in March 2004. According to the unit itself, the UK was
providing support to it as recently as October 2010 despite Bangladesh’s public
statements that “the Government will need to continue with extra judicial killings,
commonly called crossfire”. RAB freely admits to being responsible for
more than 600 deaths resulting from such “crossfire”.
Mr
Chowdhury’s torture
Mr
Chowdhury’s son, Fayyaz, a British national, has obtained evidence that RAB is
now attempting to kill his father by inducing a heart attack. Mr
Chowdhury has already suffered from one attack on 5 February. His torture
has also been recorded by Amnesty International.
The
torture techniques employed against Mr Chowdhury include:
· repeated beating to the
face and head with boots whilst being pinned down to the ground;
· repeated strikes to his
heels using a bat, causing bones in one heel to break;
· using a blade to slit the
right side of his stomach several times;
· ripping out toenails using
implements;
· pushing needles under his
fingernails;
· tying him to a chair and
taking turns to kick his body with boots and to beat him with bats;
· pouring cold water into his
nose while holding his mouth shut, inducing vomit;
· placing clamps on his
genitals, abdomen, nipples and underarms;
· applied electric shock for
two hours at a time before massaging his body for four hours to enable it to
recover;
· repeated hitting to the
elbows using a bat; and
· holding Mr Chowdhury’s
mouth and nose shut until he almost fainted. This was repeated several
times.
Fayyaz
and his family have made desperate attempts to force the Foreign Secretary,
William Hague, to take effective action to ensure that Mr Chowdhury’s torture
is brought to an end. To date, the Foreign Secretary has been content to
take assurances from Bangladesh at face value despite the clear evidence of
torture, the notoriety of the unit the UK trained and the UK’s own
international law responsibility for what is happening to Mr Chowdhury as a
result. Fayyaz has therefore been forced to take Mr Hague to the High
Court.
The
Charges
Mr
Chowdhury was originally arrested in relation to an alleged arson attack.
Once in custody, an arrest warrant was issued relating to offences allegedly
committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, in respect of
which Bangladesh has established an “International Crimes Tribunal” maligned
for its apparent lack of fair trial safeguards. Mr Chowdhury could be the
first individual to face the tribunal but is currently being detained without charge.
Whilst
in custody, he has been prevented from communicating freely with his lawyers or
doctors. He strongly denies the charges against him, which he believes
are politically-motivated and part of wider attempts by the Bangladeshi
Government to remove its opponents. If convicted, Mr Chowdhury faces the death
penalty. His arrest and torture has caused outrage in Bangladesh.
Reaction
Fayyaz
Quader Chowdury said today:
“My
father's torturers told him that he would not live to see the end of his trial. He is
being denied independent medical treatment and evaluation because they are
afraid that his torture will be exposed publicly all over the world – this
is just another way of inflicting torture upon him.”
According
to Phil Shiner, the solicitor leading Fayyaz’s legal team:
“The
UK is up to its neck in this. It has been responsible for training this
death squad and is therefore separately responsible for what it is now doing to
this respected, elderly politician. If it truly repudiates torture, then
the Coalition Government must now act swiftly and decisively to save Mr
Chowdhury’s life while it still can.”
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