Shafik Rehman arrested for alleged involvement in ‘conspiracy to abduct' Joy

Magazine editor Shafik Rehman has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a case filed over a ‘conspiracy to abduct' Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy.

Police had lodged the case in August 2015 over the conviction of a US BNP leader's son by a US court for bribing a former FBI official to reportedly gather information on Joy.

After Rehman was picked up from his home at Dhaka’s Eskaton on Saturday morning, DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Maruf Hossain Sardar said that the journalist was arrested in a case filed last year with Paltan police.

It was lodged against the BNP’s US unit leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun for ‘plotting to murder’ Joy.

Mamun is the father of Rizve Ahmed Caesar, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in March last year for bribing former FBI Special Agent Robert Lustyik.

Caesar had pleaded guilty to bribing Lustyik for confidential information to locate and harm his political rival and others associated with the intended victim, according to a US Justice Department statement.

Although the Justice Department records kept the identity of the intended victim a secret, the ruling Awami League claimed that it was Joy. 

Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy

Joy also had accused BNP leaders of conspiring to ‘abduct and kill him’ in a Facebook post.

Over the incident, Detective Police’s Inspector Fazlur Rahman on Aug 4, 2015, had filed the case, in which now Shafik Rehman, known to be close to the BNP, has been shown arrested.

DC Maruf Hossain Sardar said, “Rehman had gone abroad in 2013. We have found evidence that he had contact with those conspirators at that time.”

In the case details, it was alleged that BNP’s cultural wing JaSaS’ Vice-President Mamun and some other BNP stalwarts in Bangladesh and abroad had plotted the abduction and murder of Joy, the prime minister’s son and ICT affairs advisor.

After Caesar’s conviction, Awami League leaders had also claimed that the BNP leadership was involved in the conspiracy.

The case with Paltan police says that Joy, who lives in Virginia with his family, had also testified against Caesar in the US court last year.

Following Caesar, Robert Lustyik was sentenced to five years in prison by another US court in September last year for his involvement in the conspiracy.

Johannes Thaler, who conducted the deal between Caesar and Lustyik, was also sentenced to 30 months in prison along with Caesar.

Thaler and Caesar had bribed the former FBI agent between September 2011 and March 2012 for the information.

In its reaction to Shafik Rehman’s arrest on Saturday, the BNP protested and condemned police’s action and claimed the journalist was arrested for writing against the government’s failures.

BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said that they have informed the British High Commissioner about Rehman’s arrest.

Shafik Rehman had taken up British citizenship while working in the UK for a long time.