Shafik Rehman held meeting with FBI agent Lustyik, admits Taleya

Magazine editor Shafik Rehman knew of the ‘monetary transactions’ involved in getting information on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and had a meeting with FBI agent Robert Lustyik, his wife Taleya Rahman has admitted.

She also admitted that police had seized a file on the matter from their house at Dhaka’s Eskaton during a search.

Taleya, executive director of Democracy Watch, claimed that Rehman had taken the file for investigative reports and met Lustyk in the United States for that purpose.

Addressing a press conference at her home on Monday, she said, “Yes, a file was found (in our house). They (police) came to our house. He (Rehman) is a well organised man. He has kept files on whatever he has written so far.

“There was a file on this. He handed it over to police.”

A US court sentenced Rizve Ahmed Caesar, the son of expatriate BNP leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun, to three and a half years in prison in March last year for bribing Lustyik for files on a political rival.

According to prosecution documents submitted to the court, Caesar collected the information to ‘abduct and harm' the rival.

Although the documents kept the identity of the person about whom information had been sought secret, the ruling Awami League claimed that it was Hasina’s son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy.

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

Prosecution documents also suggest Caesar had passed on information to a Bangladeshi journalist and received $30,000 in exchange.

Detective Police’s Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed case on the incident on Aug 4, 2015, in which Rehman, known to be close to the BNP, was shown arrested.

After taking him into remand, DMP Deputy Commissioner Maruf Hossain Sardar told reporters, “Rehman had gone abroad in 2013. We’ve found evidence that he had contact with those conspirators at that time.”

Police also searched Rehman’s house during the remand.

Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Mashrur Rahman Khaled told journalists after the search, “Some documents including primary information about Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the holding number of his house, car number and some secret files were found in Shafik Rehman’s custody.

“He had preserved them.”

Rehman’s son Sumit Rehman said in a rally in London last week to demand his release: “My father is an investigative journalist. Perhaps he had inquired about the income and assets of the prime minister’s son. Perhaps he had gone far in this regard.”

Taleya spoke on similar lines at the press meet.

On the financial transactions with Lustyik, she said, “He (Rehman) had not paid any money. However, he was aware of the transactions.”

When her attention was drawn to the police claim that a few other Bangladeshi journalists were involved, Taleya said she had heard of only one.

To another question, she said, “The information exchanged involved a special person. He (Rehman) went to America at that time, as he certainly knew about the matter. I came to know later.”

According to her, Rehman had not told the detectives of any abduction and murder plot. “He only gave them the information he had received from Lustyik. I don’t know of any further details.”

Taleya claimed her husband was only interested in in-depth reporting.

“He preserves documents related to every report. Here, he hasn’t written anything but only collected information. That he had not written on the matter suggests there was not enough information for a report,” she said.

Taleya claimed Joy had been posting ‘false statuses’ on Facebook, defaming Rehman and influencing the investigation.

She demanded his immediate release.