DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Thursday (Sep 14) sentenced two leading human rights activists to two years each in jail, a trial that critics say is part of a government crackdown ahead of elections. Leaders of the Odhikar organisation, Adilur Rahman Khan and Nasiruddin Elan, 'were sentenced to two years in
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced two leading human rights activists to two years each in jail, a trial that critics say is part of a government crackdown ahead of elections.
Khan, 63, and Elan, 57, have led Odhikar 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 jail for publishing and circulating false information, hurting religious sentiments and undermining the image of the state," prosecutor Nazrul Islam Shamim told AFP.
"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.Odhikar has been documenting human rights violations in Bangladesh since 1994. It has worked closely with United Nations bodies and global human rights groups.
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