Arrest
13 BNP leaders, activists remanded in Sylhet
A Sylhet court on Wednesday placed 13 BNP and Chhatra Dal leaders and activists on a one-day remand in a case over alleged involvement in police assault and obstruction of government work.
Sylhet Kotwali police station arrested them on Tuesday and produced them in court seeking a five-day remand for each.
However, Sylhet Metropolitan Magistrate third court Judge Sharmin Khanam placed them a one-day remand each, said Sylhet District BNP General Secretary Emran Ahmed Chowdhury, who appeared for them at the court.
The accused are Sylhet Mahanagar Chhatra Dal joint secretary Abul Hossain, former co-organizer Md. Abdus Salam, Juba Dal leader Parvez Ahmed, Raju Ahmed, Chhatra Dal leader Kamrul Hasan, Goalabazar Union Chhatra Dal members of Osmaninagar Upazila Junaid Hossain, Saiful Islam, Md. Hafizur Rahman, former Publicity Secretary of Metropolitan BNP Shamim Mazumder, Joint General Secretary of Ward No. 3 BNP MA Lahin, Member of Ward No. 25 BNP Badrul Islam, Ward No. 27 BNP General Secretary Nazrul Islam, and Jasa leader Siraj Uddin.
On May 2, police arrested eight leaders and activists from a Chhatra Dal procession in the Chowhatta area of Sylhet.
Later, sub-inspector (outpost in-charge) Kazi Jamal Uddin of Kotwali police station's Shahjalal R. investigation center filed a case against eight named people and 150 to 200 unnamed individuals.
They were accused of assaulting police and obstructing government work. Police later arrested some others in that case.
In Sylhet, the police have arrested 50 leaders and activists of BNP and its associate organizations in various cases, said Emran Ahmed Chowdhury.
“Police said in the remand application in the court that the accused could do more sabotage. Interrogation on remand is necessary to obtain information from them. However, we said that no such incident happened as per the information given in the case details. There is no legal basis for putting the accused on remand in such cases," he said.
Double murder in Ctg: Local Sramik League leader among 8 arrested
Police in a drive arrested eight people including a Sramik League leader — from Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar — in connection with Monday’s double murder in the Port City’s Pahartoli area.
The arrestees were identified as Md Elias, 45, general secretary of Pahartoli unit of Sramik League; Abdur Rahim alias Kartik Banik, 29; Raihan Uddin, 19; Biplab Mallik alias Biplab, 28; Rabiul Islam, 20; Shamim, 28; Rabiul Hasan Hridoy, 16; and Sagar Das, 20.
Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner (DB) of Chattogram port zone, said Elias was arrested from Chakaria area of Cox’s Bazar while the others were arrested from different parts of Chattogram.
On Monday, Sirajul Islam Sihab had an altercation with another young man Rabiul Islam while he was chatting with his girlfriend in front of Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium gate in the afternoon.
A scuffle took place between their respective groups. To settle the issue, Elias asked both groups to come to his office at Bitak intersection in Pahartoli area.
Also read: 2 stabbed to death in Chattogram
When both groups gathered at his office around 8 pm, Elias asked his associates to beat up Sihab’s group.
A chase and counter-chase ensued and at one stage, the supporters of Elias hit two young men Masum and Sajib with sharp weapons, leaving them injured.
Later, they were taken to Chattogram Medical College and Hospital where the doctors declared them dead.
Monir Hossain, brother of Masum, filed a case against 18 people with Pahartoli Police Station.
Paraguay far-right populist presidential candidate arrested
Paraguayan police on Friday detained Paraguayo Cubas, a far-right populist who came in third in Sunday’s presidential election and encouraged his supporters to protest over his unsubstantiated claims that the vote was marred by fraud.
Cubas was being held in preventive detention under an order by the Attorney General’s Office that is accusing him of breach of the peace, Police Commissioner Gilberto Fleitas said in a radio interview.
Cubas, the candidate of the National Crusade Party who received 23% of the votes Sunday, was broadcasting live on Facebook when officers detained him outside his hotel in San Lorenzo, around 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Asunción.
Fleitas said Cubas got into a police vehicle “without any difficulty," but he continued streaming live.
In his broadcast from inside the police vehicle, Cubas chatted with officers and focused the camera on his handcuffs. “You can see now I’m being imprisoned,” he said. “All the criminals in this country should be handcuffed like Paraguayo Cubas.”
Cubas had been telling supporters since Monday that he was heading to the capital to lead a series of protests that had led to isolated clashes with police, largely outside the electoral court in Asunción.
“We will remain on the streets until Paraguayo Cubas is released,” said Juan Reyes, one of hundreds of Cubas supporters who took part in demonstrations outside the electoral court.
At least 208 people have been detained “for disturbance of public peace and other punishable offenses within the framework of the demonstrations taking place in the national territory,” police said Thursday.
Efraín Alegre, who as the candidate of a broad-based opposition coalition came in second place during Sunday’s election, demanded Cubas be released along with everyone who has been detained in protests this week.
“We demand the release of Paraguayo Cubas and all citizens imprisoned for demanding transparency," Alegre wrote on social media.
Alegre, who received 27% of the vote Sunday, conceded the race shortly after polls closed, but then on Monday called for a manual count of votes and an international audit of the country’s electronic voting system after Cubas aired his fraud allegations.
The Organization of American States, which deployed an observation mission for the election, said Tuesday there was “no reason to doubt the results” of the vote count.
Santiago Peña of the long-ruling Colorado Party easily won Sunday’s presidential election with 43% of the vote.
Over the past few days, Cubas has published images of supporters welcoming him in different parts of the country as he made his way toward the capital from Ciudad del Este, a city on the border with Brazil and Argentina.
Some 1,500 to 1,800 law enforcement officers were deployed outside the electoral court Friday for the protest staged by Cubas supporters. Authorities also prepared for any demonstration outside the police station where Cubas was taken.
Man held with 23 gold bars at Ctg airport
Customs officials detained a man along with 23 gold bars, weighing 2.7 kg, from Chattogram’s Shah Amanat International Airport today, officials said.
The arrestee was identified as Mohammad Ziauddin, from Hathazari upazila of Chattogram district.
Deputy Director of Chattogram Customs, Saifur Rahman, said a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG-148) from Dubai landed at the airport in the morning.
Also read: Man held with 13 kg gold bars at Benapole
During scanning, the customs officials suspected the existence of metal objects inside the body of the passenger and challenged him.
Later, they seized the gold bars from him.
Customs officials are scanning his body, suspecting that the passenger might be carrying more gold.
International court issues an arrest warrant for Putin
The International Criminal Court said on Friday it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.
The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough. Its practical implications, though, could well be negligible.
Even if the court has court has indicted world leaders before, it was the first time it issued a warrant against one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.
“The ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law," he said. "The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation.”
The chances of a trial of any Russians at the ICC remains extremely unlikely, as Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction— a position it vehemently reaffirmed on Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Russia doesn’t recognize the ICC and considers its decisions “legally void.” He added that Russia considers the court’s move “outrageous and unacceptable.”
Peskov refused to comment when asked if Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC’s warrant.
Ukrainian officials were jubilant.
“The world changed," said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the “wheels of justice are turning," and added that "international criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes.”
Olga Lopatkina, a Ukrainian mother who struggled for months to reclaim her foster children who were deported to an institution ran by Russian loyalists, welcomed the news of the arrest warrant. “Good news!” she said in an exchange of messages with the Associated Press. “Everyone must be punished for their crimes.”
Ukraine also is not a member of the international court, but it has granted it jurisdiction over its territory and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has visited four times since opening an investigation a year ago.
The ICC said its pre-trial chamber found “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”
The court statement said that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the child abductions “for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.
After his most recent visit, in early March, ICC prosecutor Khan said he visited a care home for children two kilometers (just over a mile) from front lines in southern Ukraine.
“The drawings pinned on the wall ... spoke to a context of love and support that was once there. But this home was empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation or their unlawful transfer to other parts of the temporarily occupied territories,” he said in a statement. “As I noted to the United Nations Security Council last September, these alleged acts are being investigated by my Office as a priority. Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war.”
And while Russia rejected the allegations and warrants of the court as null and void, others said the ICC action will have an important impact.
“The ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine for far too long," said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. "The warrants send a clear message that giving orders to commit, or tolerating, serious crimes against civilians may lead to a prison cell in The Hague.”
Prof. David Crane, who indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor 20 years ago for crimes in Sierra Leone, said dictators and tyrants around the world "are now on notice that those who commit international crimes will be held accountable to include heads of state.”
Taylor was eventually detained and put on trial at a special court in the Netherlands. He was convicted and sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment.
“This is an important day for justice and for the citizens of Ukraine,” Crane said in a written comment to the Associated Press Friday.
On Thursday, a U.N.-backed inquiry cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, among potential issues that amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
The sweeping investigation also found crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuniting with their families, a “filtration” system aimed at singling out Ukrainians for detention, and torture and inhumane detention conditions.
But on Friday, the ICC put the face of Putin on the child abduction allegations.
More clashes in Pakistan as police try to arrest Imran Khan
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan threw bricks at police who fought back with clubs and tear gas for a second day Wednesday after officers tried to arrest the ousted premier for failing to appear in court on graft charges.
Police besieged the 70-year-old opposition leader’s house in the eastern city of Lahore since Tuesday as his supporters hurled rocks and bricks, and swung batons snatched from the officers.
Violence was also reported between Khan's supporters and police in other major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan. The government sent additional police to Lahore's upscale area of Zaman Park, where Khan lives.
Also Read: Clashes erupt in Pakistan as police try to arrest Imran Khan
Early Wednesday, Khan had emerged from his house to meet with his supporters, who had faced tear gas and police batons through the night to save him from arrest. He said he was ready to travel to Islamabad on March 18 under his arrest warrant, but that police did not accept the offer.
Khan later posed for cameras seated at a long table, showing off piles of spent tear gas shells he said had been collected from around his home.
“What crime did I commit that my house has been attacked like this,” he tweeted. Fawad Chaudhry, a senior party leader from Khan’s party claimed hundreds of Khan’s supporters were injured.
At the Islamabad High Court, Khan's lawyer Khawaja Haris and his team petitioned for the suspension of the arrest warrant for the former premier. The court was expected to issue a ruling about the suspension later Wednesday.
By around 2 p.m., the clashes subsided and police stepped back, apparently in an effort to ease the tensions. This encouraged more Khan supporters to join those outside and inside his home as the situation calmed.
Many chanted Allahu akbar, the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” Khan, still wearing a gas mask, greeted them at his home.
Officials said security forces were told to move back from Khan’s house while the court in the capital, Islamabad, considered whether to suspend the warrant.
The Punjab provincial government said Wednesday that more than 100 police officers were injured in clashes with Khan’s supporters. They denied Khan's allegation that officers were using live ammunition.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April, was ordered to appear before a judge in Islamabad on Friday to answer charges of illegally selling state gifts he had received during his term as premier and concealing his assets.
The former premier has avoided appearances before the court since November, when he was wounded in a gun attack at a protest rally in eastern Punjab province, claiming he was not medically fit to travel from Lahore to Islamabad to face indictment.
Last week, he went to Islamabad to appear before three courts, but he failed to appear before the fourth court to face indictment in the graft case, which is a legal process for starting his trial.
Khan has claimed that the string of cases against him, which includes terrorism charges, are a plot by the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to discredit the former cricket star turned Islamist politician.
From his home, Khan urged his followers on Tuesday to fight on even if he is arrested. “They think this nation will fall asleep when Imran Khan is jailed,” he wrote on Twitter. “You need to prove them wrong.”
On Wednesday, he tweeted that there was a plot “to abduct & assassinate” him.
Prime Minister Sharif on Wednesday criticized Khan in televised remarks, saying that the ex-premier “considers himself above the law, and he has been defying court orders to avoid arrest.” Sharif insisted he had nothing to do with the arrest warrant, which he said was a court order and the police were only complying with it.
In Pakistan’s turbulent political history, at least seven former prime minister have been arrested in various cases and tried by courts since this South Asian country was created in 1947 after gaining independence from British colonial rule.
Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged by the military government in 1979 after his ouster in a coup. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto, served twice as prime minister and was assassinated during an election rally in 2007 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s longest-serving premier and the brother of current prime minister, was in office from 1990 to 1993 and from 1997 to 1999, when was ousted in a military coup by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He returned as premier in 2013 but was ousted by the country’s Supreme Court in 2017. He was later arrested, tried and convicted in a corruption case, although he has always denied the charges and today lives in exile in Britain.
Pakistan's ex-PM Imran Khan no-show in court, avoids arrest
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan failed to appear before a court in Islamabad on Tuesday to answer charges in a graft case against him. The no-show was apparently a legal maneuver by the ex-premier to avoid arrest.
The hearing was set by Judge Zafar Iqbal and Khan was required to appear in person to respond to charges of selling state gifts while in office. The same judge last week issued an arrest warrant for Khan but only the government of Khan’s successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, can order the police to take him into custody.
However, Khan's legal team petitioned a top court on Tuesday, requesting the suspension of the arrest warrant for him and seeking more time to appear before judge Iqbal for a pre-trial hearing.
Also Read: Suicide bombing in southwestern Pakistan kills 10 policemen
After hearing arguments from Khan's lawyer and the prosecution, the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, Aamer Farooq, suspended the arrest warrant and ordered Khan to appear before Iqbal on March 13. It was unclear whether Khan will comply with the latest court order.
The 70-year-old former cricket star and now opposition leader is embroiled in a string of court cases against him, including terrorism charges raised by police. He has so far avoided arrest and claims the legal imbroglio has been orchestrated by the government in an attempt to discredit him.
Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament last April but has claimed, without providing evidence, that his removal was illegal and a conspiracy by Sharif and Washington. Both the United States and Pakistan's government have denied those allegations.
The charges in Tuesday's case accuse Khan of unlawfully selling state gifts he had received as premier and concealing the earnings from those sales from the country's election tribunal. In October, the tribunal disqualified him from holding public office for five years. Khan automatically lost his seat in Parliament because of the disqualification, which he has since challenged in court.
Mohsin Ranjha, a lawyer from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, criticized Khan for not appearing in court and said the former premier is mocking the legal system.
“Imran Khan only appears before the courts when he wants to,” said Ranja.
Fawad Chaudhry, a close aide of Khan and a senior leader in his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, claimed Khan could not travel to Islamabad for health reasons. He also said Khan had been threatened with violence. However, Khan was expected to lead an election rally in Lahore on Wednesday, despite threats to his life.
Khan has been living in the eastern city of Lahore since November, when he was shot in the leg by a gunman during a protest rally. Since then, he has only once traveled to Islamabad — last week — for court appearances in other cases against him.
His party has threatened nationwide protests if Khan is arrested while the former prime minister claims there are serious threats on his life. Since his ouster, he has been campaigning for early elections — another demand that Sharif dismisses, saying the vote would be held as scheduled later this year.
Pakistan's election tribunal on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for Khan, and Chaudhry, who is a top leader from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, on charges of making insulting speeches against Sikandar Sultan Raja, who is the head of the elections overseeing body. The tribunal has asked police to produce Khan and Chaudhry before it on March 14.
Russians mark Ukraine war anniversary with flowers, arrests
Russians in Moscow and other cities brought flowers to Ukrainian poets and held one-person pickets with antiwar slogans Friday to mark the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Russian media and civil rights groups reported at least a dozen detentions, part of the Kremlin's sweeping crackdown on dissent that has spiked to unprecedented levels since the start of the war.
At least eight people were detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, according to OVD-Info, a legal aid group that tracks political arrests. They all had brought flowers to the city’s monument to victims of political repression, the group said.
Online news outlet Sota filmed at least seven people getting detained in St. Petersburg after they brought flowers to a monument for the renowned Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Footage posted by the outlet showed a police officer explaining to a couple that they had violated coronavirus restrictions.
Sota also reported a person detained in Moscow, where people flocked to the monument of Lesya Ukrainka, another renowned Ukrainian poet, to lay flowers. A contingent of police officers monitored the group but left mostly didn't interrupt.
Also Read: Pregnant Russians flock to Argentina seeking new passports
Five people were detained in the Siberian city of Barnaul, according to the Sibir.Realii news outlet, including a man who picketed a central square with a placard reading “Stop being silent.” In another Siberian city, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a woman was detained for protesting with a banner that read, “We’re mourning. Forgive us, we screwed up our country,” the outlet reported.
Russians all across the country actively protested against the war in Ukraine during the first week of the invasion. Large rallies quickly fizzled after thousands were detained, but solo pickets -- and detentions -- have persisted throughout the year.
Russian authorities have enforced a law enacted soon after the invasion that effectively criminalizes any public expression against what the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Russian parliament rubber-stamped a bill that outlawed discrediting the Russian military or spreading false information a week after Moscow's troops rolled into Ukraine.
OVD-Info said in a statement Friday that “for 305 out of 365 days of the war, security forces detained people for their anti-war position in various cities of Russia and the annexed Crimea.”
As of mid-December, the group had counted 378 people facing criminal prosecution for their antiwar positions in 69 Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. The group also counted more than 5,500 administrative cases on the charge of discrediting the Russian army.
College principal, 4 others arrested in Gazipur over vandalizing police vehicle
Police have arrested five people, including an acting principal of a college in Gazipur, in a case filed over vandalizing police cars and obstructing government work.
The arrestees are Nazma Nasrin, acting principal of Shalna Nasir Uddin Memorial High School and College; Matiur Rahman, a local Awami League leader; Maksudur Rahman; Mobarak Hossain; and Tamim Hossain Tanmoy.
SI Utpal Kumar of Gazipur Sadar police station filed the case over vandalizing police cars and obstructing government work during a student protest.
According to the police, students of the institution had been protesting for over a month, demanding the removal of the principal.
The students blocked the college campus and the nearby Dhaka-Mymensingh highway on Tuesday.
SI Utpal said some outsiders attacked the students amid the protest, and police went there to bring the situation under control.
“They obstructed police from discharging their duty and vandalized police cars at the instigation of the principal and the AL leader,” he said.
They were arrested from the spot, and a case regarding this was filed later that day, he added.
The arrestees were sent to court on Wednesday.
Read more: CU: Chhatra League activists vandalise VC's office over teacher recruitment
20 ‘teen gang members’ held in Dhaka, RAB says
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested 20 members of a “teen gang” along with sharp weapons from different areas of Dhaka on Monday.
Tipped off, a team of RAB-2 conducted drives in the capital’s Mohammadpur, Adabar, Hazaribagh, Bosila and Kawran Bazar areas on Monday night and arrested them along with sharp weapons, said Senior ASP Md Fazlul Haque, senior assistant director (Media) of RAB-2.
Read: Anti-Terrorism Unit arrests convicted ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir activist’ in Dhaka
After primary interrogation, RAB came to know that they were involved in criminal activities including selling drugs, mugging, extortion and stealing.
The process is underway to take legal action against them, said the RAB official.