Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid gets ‘death threat’ outside courtroom

Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid has lodged a general diary (GD) with police after reportedly receiving a death threat right outside of a courtroom.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 July 2017, 04:11 PM
Updated : 26 July 2017, 04:11 PM

Representatives of Techno Drugs Ltd made the threat on Wednesday morning after a hearing of a petition he filed against the pharmaceutical company at the High Court, Murshid has alleged.

He told bdnews24.com that he filed the GD with Shahbagh police afterwards.

Advocate Murshid has also brought the matter to the notice of the High Court bench which heard the petition.

The court has ordered the Shahbagh police OC to produce those involved in threatening the lawyer before the court on Thursday, he said.

The lawyer, known for his public interest litigations, is the president of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a human rights and environmental organisation. He also received the National Environment Award in 2015 for his contribution in preserving the environment.

Murshid told reporters that he had filed the petition against 28 companies including Techno Drugs over ‘faults’ in their medicine production.

After the hearing, the court on Apr 3 had ordered to form a five-strong committee with a World Health Organization (WHO) representative as a member of the committee to assess the GMP or good manufacturing practice of the Techno Drugs.

However, the committee, later, without consulting the WHO representative had submitted its report in favour of the pharmaceutical company - which the lawyer challenged in court.

“On Wednesday morning, several Techno Drugs representatives threatened to kill me after coming out of the courtroom following the hearing. Using foul language, they said they would ‘show me their power’.”

Since then, the lawyer said, he was feeling unsafe. “The people from that company could harm my family or me to take revenge at any time.”