In a development, US Attorney General William Barr has reopened a case against Rashed Chowdhury, the absconding killer of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
According to the Politico news portal, late last month, Attorney General Barr “quietly reopened a sprawling case that spans four decades and two continents”.
“Barr’s move is the first step in a process that could result in Chowdhury losing asylum after more than a decade and potentially facing deportation,” according to the report headlined “He thought he had asylum. Now, he could face a death sentence.”
Bangladesh Post did not get any comment from the foreign ministry whether the government is involved with the case, despite attempts. The government is also lobbying hard for Chowdhury’s extradition. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also wrote to President Donald Trump to return him to Bangladesh.
The Politico also did not get comment for the report from the Bangladesh embassy in Washington.
A former military officer, Rashed Chowdhury is one of the four convicted killers remaining convicts at large along with Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, and SHMB Noor Chowdhury.
The reopening of the case involves “the killing of a president, a decades-old death sentence and a hard-fought battle for asylum pitting a former Bangladeshi military officer against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”
“For almost 15 years, the case was closed. But now, thanks to Barr, it’s back. And immigration lawyers say the move sends a chilling message to people who have received asylum in the U.S.”
It signals, they argue, that even after years of successful legal battles, any protection could still be revoked out of the blue.
They also say the move’s timing is “inscrutable”.
The legal team for the military officer—wanted by Bangladesh’s government for decades—says it suspects foul play, and that if the U.S. deports him, he is all but certain to be executed.
“It’s purely a favor the Trump administration is doing for Bangladesh,” said Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for the man in question, Rashed Chowdhury. “And the question is, why are they doing it?”
Bangladesh’s government has for years been open about its efforts to persuade the U.S. to extradite Chowdhury—whom it calls a cold-blooded assassin.
Bangabandhu was killed along with the other members of his family on the fateful night of August 15 in 1975.
His daughters – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana – survived as they were abroad at that time.
The killers were awarded by the subsequent military governments with jobs and diplomatic postings in different countries.
An indemnity ordinance was also issued after the gruesome killing giving legal immunity to the killers.
The ordinance was scrapped in the parliament only after the Awami League came back to power 21 years after the murder in 1996.
For two decades after the coup, Rashed Chowdhury worked as a diplomat, stationed in Bangladesh’s embassies around the world.
In 1996, when Awami League came back to power, he was the top diplomat at Bangladesh’s embassy in Brazil—and was soon summoned home.
Fearing reprisal, he fled to the United States with his wife and son.
Chowdhury and his family arrived in the U.S. in 1996 on visitor visas. Within two months, they’d applied for asylum, according to the Politico.
“That’s where the Justice Department comes in. America’s immigration courts aren’t part of the judicial branch.
“Instead, the system that determines who gets to stay here is part of the DOJ, with the attorney general as the ultimate authority (though migrants can appeal his or her determinations to federal appellate courts).
“The immigration courts are massively backlogged, and adjudicating asylum claims can take years.
“That’s how it went for Chowdhury. Nearly 10 years after he arrived in the U.S., an immigration judge granted him asylum.
“But DHS, which handles U.S. government arguments against immigrants’ efforts to stay in the U.S., appealed the judge’s ruling. DHS lawyers argued his participation in the coup should disqualify him from receiving asylum.
“So, DOJ’s Board of Immigration Appeals—which oversees the immigration judges and has the power to reverse their decisions—took up the case. In 2006, BIA sided with the judge, and concluded Chowdhury deserved asylum,” according to the report.
By last month, something had changed. On June 17, Barr directed the Board of Immigration Appeals to send Chowdhury’s case to him for review—making clear he would reopen the matter that had been decided more than a decade earlier.
The document in which the attorney general made this move doesn’t include Chowdhury’s name. But it refers to “the matter of A-M-R-C,” using his full initials. And the details of the case described in Barr’s announcement match Chowdhury’s.
A DOJ spokesperson also declined to comment to Politico, noting the department does not confirm the identities of people in such proceedings.
