http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=3Dh110-2181

110th U.S. Congress (2007-2008)
H.R. 2181: For the relief of Mohuiddin A. K. M. Ahmed

Sponsor: Rep. James McDermott [D-WA]

This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced
bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise
bills before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never
make it out of committee.

Last Action: May 3, 2007: Referred to the House Committee on the
Judiciary.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 3, 2007

Mr. MCDERMOTT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary

110th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 2181
For the relief of Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed is an innocent Bangladeshi citizen living
in exile in the United States. In 1996, a Bangladeshi court
erroneously convicted Mr. Ahmed of murder and sentenced him to death
in connection with a 1975 coup. Having exhausted all available legal
avenues, Ahmed now sits in U.S. custody awaiting his deportation and
subsequent execution.

(2) The circumstances surrounding the trial in absentia and subsequent
conviction of Mohiuddin `Din' Ahmed, are sufficiently suspect as to
warrant the immediate intervention on the part of the United States
Government to prevent his planned deportation, which as of now is
imminent.

(3) If the United States Congress, the United States State Department,
or the United States Department of Homeland Security fail to intervene
on his behalf, or favorably exercise their discretion in this matter,
Ahmed will face certain execution by hanging upon his arrival in
Bangladesh.

(4) Following its split from Pakistan in 1971, the newly sovereign
nation of Bangladesh experienced a period of violent civil unrest,
culminating in the violent coup to overthrow the nation's first Prime
Minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib) on August 15, 1975. Ahmed had
been commissioned as an officer in the East Pakistani military before
Bangladesh declared its independence, and he continued to serve during
the Pakistani civil war and after independence. On the night of August
15, 1975, Ahmed was ordered to station his men at a roadblock roughly
one mile from the home of then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman. That night, a violent coup erupted, and individuals
stormed the home of the Prime Minister, killing him and the rest of
his family.

(5) Ahmed, like most Bangladeshis and many international observers at
the time, was concerned with Mujib's policies of political suppression
and his repeated violations of the civil rights of the Bangladeshi
people. However, he had no knowledge of, nor did he support, the
violent coup that erupted that night.

(6) Following the coup, Ahmed went on to serve as a diplomat in Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere, until 1996, when Sheikh Hasina Wajed,
daughter of the assassinated Prime Minister, came to power, and then
broke her promise to respect the Bangladeshi constitutional amendment
which provided immunity to officers involved in the 1975 coup. Rather,
Sheikh Hasina Wajed orchestrated the repeal of the constitutional
amendment, and the arrest of the men she believed were responsible for
the death of her father. Under these orders, Ahmed, who had been
living in Los Angeles, was tried in absentia, convicted, and sentenced
to death by hanging. He will not be allowed to reopen the in absentia
conviction. As such, he will not be provided the opportunity to
question the fairness of the trial, confront witnesses against him,
nor present exculpatory evidence on his behalf which has recently been
uncovered, i.e., eyewitness testimony affirming Ahmed's innocence.

(7) Soon after Din arrived in the United States he applied for asylum
but was denied by both the Immigration Court and the Board of
Immigration appeals. By the time his trial began in Bangladesh he had
already filed a request for political asylum under the provisions of
the United Nations Convention Against Torture. But after the September
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, immigration law had changed and Ahmed,
accused of taking part in killing a head of state, was no longer
entitled to relief from deportation. Last February, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the immigration judge's denial of
asylum and related relief.

(8) It is incumbent upon us to find a country where Ahmed might be
granted safe-haven, that does not condone death penalty, and that
respects human rights.

SEC. 2. DEFERRAL OF ACTION ON DEPORTATION.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for
purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et
seq.), Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed shall have his final order of
deportation indefinitely stayed.

(b) Deferral of Action- Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed shall be accorded
deferred action status for an indefinite period, and the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement shall release him from ICE custody with an
order of supervision. As such, Mr. Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed will not be
deported to Bangladesh, or any country, which maintains an extradition
treaty with Bangladesh or which condones the death penalty.

(c) Preferential Immigration Treatment for Certain Relatives- The
spouse and children of Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed shall, by virtue of such
relationship, be accorded the same rights, privileges, or status under
the Immigration and Nationality Act as Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed.

SEC. 3. PERMANENT RESIDENCE.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for
purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et
seq.), Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed shall be eligible for adjustment of
status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence
upon filing an application for issuance of an immigrant visa under
section 204 of such Act or for adjustment of status to lawful
permanent resident.

(b) Adjustment of Status- If Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed applies for lawful
permanent residency, he shall be considered to have entered and
remained lawfully in the United States, and shall be eligible for
adjustment of status under section 245 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act as of the date of the enactment of this Act.

(c) Reduction of Immigrant Visa Number- Upon the granting of permanent
residence to Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed, the Secretary of State shall
instruct the proper officer to reduce by 1, during the current or next
following fiscal year, the total number of immigrant visas that are
made available to natives of the country of the alien's birth under
section 203(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act or, if
applicable, the total number of immigrant visas that are made
available to natives of the country of the alien's birth under section
202(e) of such Act.

(d) Preferential Immigration Treatment for Certain Relatives- The
spouse of Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed shall, by virtue of such
relationship, be accorded the same rights, privileges, or status under
the Immigration and Nationality Act as Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed.

SEC. 4. ASYLUM ABROAD.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for
purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed
shall be permitted to seek asylum in a foreign nation.

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http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_36682.shtml

Nation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Friday, June 8, 2007

Mohiuddin's deportation: California court stays proceedings for 7 days
By UNB, Dhaka

A federal judge in California has stayed the proceedings for seven
days against Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed, condemned convict in the
Bangabandu murder case, after fresh hearing of his case.

In his ruling Thursday, the judge in California charged the Department
of Homeland Security with misleading Congress, particularly those
members fighting the deportation order against the convicted killer.

American CBC news said while much of what the judge meant that
Mohiuddin's family, friends and those opposed to the death penalty in
the U.S. and Canada get a few more days to fight for the man's life.

However, Mohiuddin's status remains same. He has been denied asylum
status in the U.S. and is in danger of being sent back to Dhaka.

Mohiuddin, then a Major of Bengal Lancer in 1975, has been sentenced
to death in absentia in 1998 for his role in the August 15, 1975 coup.

Bangladesh's founding father and first President Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, most members of his family and some security officers
were killed on August 15. His two daughters-Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh
Rehana survived the massacre as they were outside the country on that
fateful night.

Media reports in US and Canada said the seven-day stay of proceedings
is an opening that allows Mohiuddin's family in Nova Scotia and the
Canadian government - if it has the will - to argue that Ahmed be sent
to Canada instead as a refugee.

His (Mohiuddin) supporters in Congress want the Bush administration to
allow him deported to Canada, where he would not face a return to
Bangladesh. Canada does not deport people to countries where they may
face the death penalty.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Amnesty International,
prominent Ottawa Rabbi Reuven Bulka and former Liberal justice
minister Irwin Cotler have asked the federal government to intervene.
At the same time, there are some important Bangladeshi voices in
Canada who oppose Canadian involvement.

There are indications that Canadian officials will accept a refugee
appeal for Mohiuddin, but only if the US Department of Homeland
Security or the White House approves of his deportation to Canada.
Ottawa does not want to interfere with American court decisions or
offend Washington directly on this issue.

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http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/06/05/d706051501109.htm

Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Congressman McDermott's support for Mohiuddin
By Mashuqur Rahman

On May 31, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the mandate that
ended convicted killer AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed's asylum appeals and made
him deportable from the United States. However, the long saga has
moved from the courts to the political arena after a congressman
introduced a private bill to issue Mohiuddin a green card.

The rationale presented in the bill needs discussion both in the
United States and Bangladesh; and it is time to explore whether the
United States government should be actively sheltering a convicted
murderer.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was set to deport Mohiuddin
to Bangladesh on or around June 2. However, Mohiuddin's lawyers
managed to get a temporary stay of deportation from a lower court
judge until Tuesday, June 5. A US District Court judge has scheduled a
hearing for Tuesday June 5 to consider a stay of deportation.

The hearing will not reconsider the asylum case since the lower court
does not have jurisdiction and cannot overrule the Court of Appeals
decision. Mohiuddin's lawyers have, instead, asked the District Court
to consider whether Mohiuddin could be deported while there was a
private bill on his behalf pending in the US Congress.

On May 3, while the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was still considering
Mohiuddin's last petition, a Democratic congressman from Washington
State, Jim McDermott, introduced a private bill in the US House
Judiciary Committee on his behalf. A private bill is a rare
legislative procedure in the United States used to pass a law that
benefits only one person rather than a class of individuals.

Private bills are sometimes used in immigration cases by members of
Congress to grant relief to individuals who, because of an unusual set
of circumstances, may be facing deportation from the country. For
example, they are sometimes used to give relief to family members who
would otherwise be separated if one member were to be deported,
causing severe hardship to the rest.

Private bills rarely become laws. To become a law, the bill must first
be passed by the US House Judiciary Committee, then by the US House of
Representatives, then by the US Senate, and finally must be signed
into law by the president of the United States.

The private bill introduced by congressman McDermott, known as H.R.
2181, aims to help Mohiuddin in a number of ways. First, it aims to
stay the deportation order against him indefinitely. Second, it aims
to release him from custody and bars the DHS from deporting him to
Bangladesh, or to any country that has an extradition treaty with
Bangladesh.

Third, it aims to grant a green card to Mohiuddin, which would allow
him to get preferential treatment before all other green card
applicants from Bangladesh. It also aims to grant him the card by
reducing the number of green cards available to other Bangladeshis by
one. Finally, it states that Mohiuddin will be allowed to seek asylum
in any foreign country of his choosing.

Congressman McDermott's bill also makes some extraordinary "findings."
The bill claims that Mohiuddin is an "innocent Bangladeshi citizen."
It also claims that the Bangladesh court "erroneously convicted Mr.
Ahmed of murder and sentenced him to death." It further claims that
the trial and conviction are "sufficiently suspect as to warrant the
immediate intervention" by the US government to prevent his
deportation.

However, the claims in the bill directly contradict the ruling of the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In its decision denying Mohiuddin'spetition=

the evidence that his in absentia murder trial and conviction in
Bangladesh was fundamentally unfair and, thus, deprived him of due
process of law. Therefore, the IJ properly relied on the conviction."
Mohiuddin failed to convince the US court that his trial was unfair.

The court did not find that Mohiuddin was "erroneously convicted," or
that the trial was "sufficiently suspect." It felt that it was proper
to rely on the conviction in the Bangladeshi court.

Therefore, the congressman's claim that Mohiuddin is an "innocent
Bangladeshi citizen" is not supported by the facts, and is also not
something that Mohiuddin was able to convince any court of.

Furthermore, the US State Department has stated that Mohiuddin"s trial
-- a high profile trial observed by the world community and human
rights organizations -- followed due process.

The bill also claims that Mohiuddin was merely manning a roadblock on
August 15, 1975, and that he "had no knowledge of, nor did he support,
the violent coup that erupted that night."

Again, this claim in the bill directly contradicts the 9th Circuit's
ruling. In the ruling the court wrote: "Ahmed is ineligible for asylum
and withholding of removal for two reasons:

Because he engaged in terrorist activity,

Because he assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of
others on account of their political opinion. Even his own account of
his actions established that he assisted or otherwise participated in
the persecution of persons on account of their political opinion."
Perhaps the most inexplicable part of the bill is its reference to the
Indemnity Act. The bill states "...when Sheikh Hasina Wajed, daughter
of the assassinated prime minister, came to power, and then broke her
promise to respect the Bangladeshi constitutional amendment which
provided immunity to officers involved in the 1975 coup. Rather,
Sheikh Hasina Wajed orchestrated the repeal of the constitutional
amendment."

The congressman, in the bill, seems to be advocating immunity for the
murderers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family. It is
difficult to understand why a US congressman would suggest that
repealing of a grant of immunity to murderers of children and pregnant
women should be called into question.

Congressman McDermott's bill is based on false or misleading
information. It claims as facts the many arguments Mohiuddin and his
supporters have been publicly making, but failed to prove them in US
courts of law where facts and evidence count.

By introducing the private bill, congressman McDermott has staked his
reputation on the word of a convicted murderer who has been found to
engage in terrorist activity by US courts of law.

At a time when the United States is engaged in a global war on terror,
a Congressional intervention on behalf of an individual deemed to have
engaged in terrorist activity is an extraordinary step.

Given the political sensitivity of the bill, and its awkward position
within the war on terror, it is highly unlikely that the bill will
ever become law. However, for Mohiuddin to get a stay of deportation
the bill does not have to become law.

If the House Immigration Subcommittee takes up the bill and requests a
report from the US immigration authorities, it would result in a stay
of deportation. All indications are that the Subcommittee has not
taken up Mohiuddin's private bill -- if it had, a stay of deportation
would have already occurred.

Without such action it will be an uphill battle for Mohiuddin's
lawyers to convince the judge at Tuesday's hearing to order a stay of
deportation. It is almost a certainty that the subcommittee chairwoman
will be lobbied hard on behalf of Mohiuddin in the coming days.

Having lost his asylum bid in the US courts, Mohiuddin is now
appealing to American politicians to continue to evade justice.
American politicians, such as congressman Jim McDermott, are now
confronted with a choice between the rule of law and the word of a
convicted killer.

By introducing the private bill on behalf of Mohiuddin congressman
McDermott may have bought Mohiuddin a few more days of evading
justice. But at what cost?

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With Time Running Out, Major Mohiuddin Ahmed Seeks Asylum In Canada

http://www.thestar.com/article/218689

Toronto Star, Toronto, Canada
May 29, 2007 04:30 AM
By Tim Harper

Plea for asylum - Canadian family urges Ottawa to grant refugee status
to U.S. deportee to Bangladesh who faces execution for his role in
1975 coup

SAN FRANCISCO-With his remaining time possibly measured in hours,
friends and family of a former Bangladeshi diplomat and military
officer are appealing to Ottawa to grant him asylum to save his life.

U.S. authorities are set to deport Mohiuddin Ahmed as early as
Thursday, sending him back to Dhaka where he has been sentenced, in
absentia, to death for his role in a 1975 coup.

He has steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying that as a military
officer with the rank of major at the time, he was merely following
orders to form a roadblock in front of the home of the president,
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was slain along with members of his family,
including his wife and 10-year old son, in a dawn attack on his Dhaka
villa by more than 100 soldiers.

The 1998 convictions of Ahmed and 14 other military officials were the
work of a vengeful government and a sham, his family says.

They say Ahmed sought asylum in the United States rather than return
to Bangladesh, a country where he believed he could not find justice.

Ahmed's last chance to remain in the U.S. ended late last week when
San Francisco's 9th Circuit Court refused to hear his case again.

"I stand by him and I will stand with him until his last breath," his
weeping wife, Hena Mohiuddin, said in an interview here.

As she spoke, she was comforted by her daughter Sabrina and son
Rouben. "I want Canada to do the right thing. Canada has a
humanitarian history. Canada would know this is not right."

Politicians on both sides of the border are rallying to Ahmed's case.

Ahmed has two nieces in the Greater Toronto Area, but they fear
retribution against family members in Bangladesh if they speak out.

Another niece, Jinat Jahan, of Dartmouth, N.S., has appealed to
Canadian Immigration Minister Diane Finley and she and Ahmed's
daughter Sabrina will take their case to MPs in Ottawa today.

"I implore you to save this innocent man from an unjust sentence of
death," writes Jahan, who has been in Canada since 2004.

"I am asking you to urgently intervene and take such steps as are
necessary to allow my uncle to come to Canada as a refugee."

Because time is ticking on this case, Canadian legal sources say it
could take the intervention of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay
or even the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to keep Ahmed from
being sent to an execution.

"We expect him to be taken from the tarmac to the firing squad," says
his Los Angeles lawyer Joseph Sandoval.

This type of appeal has very few precedents, Canadian lawyers say,
because the 60-year-old Ahmed has been held by U.S. authorities at an
immigration detention centre near Long Beach, Calif., since mid-March.

Had he boarded a flight to Toronto before his arrest by U.S.
immigration authorities, he would have been protected there. Three
others who were with Ahmed that night are in Canada and Ottawa has
refused to deport any of them because it does not send people to
countries where they would face the death penalty.

Two of Ahmed's former military colleagues have become Canadian
citizens.

The U.S. state department has ruled that his trial in Dhaka followed
due process, even though the department's most recent report on human
rights found the Bangladeshi court system was "plagued by corruption"
and hampered by witness tampering, victim intimidation and missing
evidence.

The San Francisco court ruled Ahmed "assisted or participated" in the
persecution of others for political reasons and said the coup was an
act of terrorism.

In the post-Sept. 11 United States, there is usually no leeway given
anyone associated with terrorism, although American authorities do not
consider Ahmed a security threat and are holding him with others who
have overstayed their visas.

He has worked as a bank teller, translator and salesman for the past
11 years in Los Angeles. He speaks French and English and his
immediate family would be able to visit him regularly from California,
his supporters say.

On this side of the border, Ahmed has found support on the right and
the left.

The first attempt to deport him was stayed after the intervention of
California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Jim McDermott, a liberal Democrat from Washington state, has
introduced a private bill in Congress, insisting on Ahmed's innocence,
citing the injustice of his trial and calling on legislators to find
safe haven for him where his human rights will be respected.

In Ottawa, Liberal MPs Irwin Cotler, who is a former justice minister,
and Michael Savage, who represents the Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, N.S.
riding where Admed's niece Jinat Jahan now lives, are also set to
publicly take up the man's cause. "I have been with him for 37 years,"
Hena Mohiuddin says. "I can't think of him as an angry person. I can
only think of him as a loving man, a caring man.

"And all of a sudden, in 1996, he became an (alleged) killer. And he
couldn't even present himself in court."

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http://sajeeb.blogspot.com/2007/03/case-of-mohiuddin-ahmed.html

Friday, March 30, 2007
The Case of Mohiuddin Ahmed
By Sajeeb Wazed

I'm sure by now most of you are aware of the case of Mohiuddin Ahmed,
one of the killers of my family. Having run out of legal remedies he
and his family have gone on a major propaganda offensive to raise
sympathy for him. So I would like to present the other side of the
story.

Most people are aware of the political side of the story. Most are not
aware of the personal side. On behalf of my family, here it is.

My grandfather, even though he was the President, continued to live in
his personal home in Dhanmondi instead of his official residence at
Bangabhaban. It was an average house in a residential neighborhood. If
any of you are interested in seeing the house, it is now a museum and
I invite you to visit it. It has been preserved just as it was on that
night in August 1975.

Mohiuddin and his cohorts killed the security guards and made their
way into the house. They confronted my grandfather on the main
stairway, where they shot him. They then proceeded through the house,
shooting the rest of my family. They shot my grandmother, three uncles
and my two older uncles' wives.

My oldest uncle Kamal's wife Sultana was five months pregnant and she
begged for her life. They shot her anyway, but she was still alive
until 9:00 in the morning. Mohiuddin Ahmed himself and another
officer, Huda then ordered some of their junior officers to shoot her.

My youngest uncle Russell was just 10 years old. He was terrified and
begged them not to kill him. One of the officers took pity on him and
tried to save him. This officer took him downstairs and tried to hide
Russell. Another officer said "He's going to grow up like a snake and
come back to kill us." Then Mohiuddin Ahmed, Huda and another officer,
Noor, shot Russell.

Along with my immediate family a total of 19 members of my family were
murdered that night. My grandfather's nephew and prot=E9g=E9 Moni and his
wife were shot in their home right in front of their two sons, Parash
and Taposh, who were 6 and 4 at the time. My uncle Moni's wife was
pregnant as well.

The killers then buried the bodies in 18 unmarked graves at the Banani
graveyard in Dhaka. To this day we do not know who is in which grave.
Only my grandfather was buried separately in his home village of
Tungipara.

This narrative was pieced together from confessions of some of the
killers and eyewitness accounts, mostly by the staff that worked at my
grandfather's house. Some of them still work for my family.

I am not writing this to get sympathy, or pity. What I want is that
justice be served. This was not a political assassination. This was a
brutal murder. Mohiuddin Ahmed is a cold blooded killer. He has been
hiding out as an illegal alien in the United States and the United
States justice system has recognized him for what he is, a fugitive
from justice.

During our government's term we made it a point to conduct his trial
in the most transparent manner possible so that there would be
absolutely no doubt about the verdict. Representatives of foreign
missions, including the US Embassy in Dhaka, closely monitored the
entire process. After the verdict was announced I was personally told
by US State Department officials that they found the trial to be
completely legitimate and they were fully satisfied with the process.
This was 9 years ago.

Mohiuddin had every opportunity to fight his case. He had plenty of
opportunity to appeal his conviction and sentence. He did neither, but
instead chose to try and stay beyond the reach of the law. Now he is
attempting to stay beyond the law again by asking to be deported to a
third country. That would be a grave travesty of justice.

For all that criticize my grandfather I would like to point out a few
things. First, this is just propaganda meant to divert attention from
the truth. The truth is that this was a murder most heinous. No amount
of political acrimony justifies this.

Second, my grandfather was elected by an overwhelming majority of the
people of Bangladesh. His party, the Awami League, had won
approximately 290 out of 300 seats in Parliament. That is almost the
entire Parliament. They had the two thirds mandate required to make
any constitutional amendments they wanted. The people had given them
that mandate.

It is all too easy to second guess the politics of 35 years ago, but
the world was a very different place then. What did my 10 year old
uncle do to deserve to be killed? What did my grandmother do? What
kind of a savage does it take to shoot a woman who is five months
pregnant? A man like Mohiuddin Ahmed.

The truth remains the truth, no matter how loud some may scream that
it is not. The truth is that Mohiuddin Ahmed brutally murdered women
and children. And for that he must face his punishment.

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http://www.saag.org/papers22/paper2183.html

..... The arrest of Mohiuddin has given rise to several unanswered
questions. People want to know how this man was able to live abroad
with a Bangladeshi passport which had expired long ago. Some reports
indicate that, he was not holding Bangladeshi but a Pakistani
passport. Mohiuddin lost his diplomatic job when Awami League came in
power in 1996. He immediately managed to obtain passport of that
country and mostly was living in Pakistan, UAE and Lao PDR. He
established a 'Cocktail Lounge' in Lao PDR in 1997 with a local
partner. It was learnt that the former army officer invested US$ 1
million in the project holding more than 86 percent shares. This
cocktail lounge ultimately turned into meeting place for the members
of intelligence agency of Pakistan whenever it wished to meet the
foreign contacts or agents. It also turned into one of the most
secured meeting places for the notorious drug barons and arms dealers.
Two years later, Mohiuddin got into secret arms deal and was trading
in arms with various rebel groups in India's North-East. He was also
involved in drug trafficking using the Golden Triangle.

Although Abu Zafar, the consul general of Bangladesh in Los Angeles,
while talking to media said he was not aware of Ahmed's arrest and
declined to comment, it is learnt that Mohidduin was maintaining close
links with several Bangladeshi diplomats in US including a former
Press Minister with Bangladeshi embassy in Washington.

Though Mohiuddin Ahmed is a self-proclaimed offender, and the US is
keen to deport him, some problems could still arise. Most of the
Bangladeshi diplomats posted in the US were recruited by the former
regime of Khaleda Zia. Mohiuddin Ahmed has been keeping close contact
with them. They might try to botch the effort to bring him back to
Bangladesh. In the past, due to political rivalry, attempts to bring
back such culprits were halted by the BNP.

Some reports also indicated that Mohiuddin is set to file appeal
against any possible extradition with the US government, which might
delay the entire process for at least several months. Moreover, if
Mohiuddin's counsel will demand any possible extradition of him to
Pakistan (not Bangladesh), which had already provided him with their
passport and in that case might be finally flying back to Pakistan and
not Bangladesh.

Conclusion

The arrest of AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, responsible for killing of
Bangabandhu and most of his family members, in the US has once again
brought the issue of punishing these culprits to the fore.
Interestingly, this development has taken place when Shaikh Hasina and
Nobel laureate Dr. Mohammad Yunus two important personalities of
Bangladesh are in that country. The US which has been fighting a war
on terror since 9/11 would not like

to set a bad example by allowing Mohiuddin Ahmed to evade the law
enforcers of Bangladesh. Though the military backed caretaker
government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed has so far acted impartially, it
remains to be seen how it acts against someone who had the army past.
Deportation and due punishment of Mohiuddin Ahmed might check the
politics of killings in Bangladesh. It might also weaken the opponents
of 'Liberation War' inside Bangladesh. Finally, it will also be a
blow to insurgency in northeast as Mohiuddin Ahmed has been
interacting with various rebel groups active there.

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http://www.voanews.com/bangla/2007-03-31-voa2.cfm

31-March-2007
Voice Of America

Mohiuddin can Stay in Los Angeles' Detention Center until mid-April
By Saifur Rahman Osmani Jeetu

Report from Los Angeles

The spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has
informed that Mohiuddin Ahmed , a wanted convict in Bangladesh can
stay at the detention center in Log Angeles until 15 April.
Mohiuddin , then a junior officer in the Army was a coup plotter of
1975 in which the founding father of Bangladesh was killed .

He faces a death sentence at home. His attorneys are trying to find a
country other than Bangladesh where he can get a political asylum on
his deportation from the USA.

In USA Mohiuddin has been arrested for violating the immigration law.

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[A grandson of the Bangladeshi leader slain in a 1975 coup says a
Venice man was one of the shooters]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deport31mar31,1,7033063.story

LA Times
March 31, 2007

Relative of slain family says man ordered deported is killer
By Ashley Surdin, Times Staff Writer
ashley.sur...@latimes.com

A Venice man whom friends and family are trying to save from execution
in Bangladesh is a "cold-blooded killer" who murdered a 10-year-old
boy during a military coup in 1975, a relative of the slain child said
Friday.

Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, 60, was tried in absentia in 1996, convicted
of murder and sentenced to hang for his role in the assassination of
President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh and seven family
members. U.S. courts ordered Ahmed deported to face his penalty.

Ahmed, then an army major, says he manned a roadblock a mile from the
president's home, but thought the leader would be arrested peacefully.
"Myself and others believed that the orders we received were lawful,"
Ahmed said in a written statement. "At no time was I, or my troops,
involved in any violence."

But Sajeeb Wazed, the slain leader's grandson, said Ahmed was one of
the "actual shooters" who murdered the family in their Dhaka home.

"This wasn't just a political assassination, this was a gruesome,
gruesome murder," Wazed, 35, said in a phone interview from
Washington, D.C.

Wazed said that staff members present during the rampage said that
Ahmed was among a group of soldiers who shot the family's security
guards and barged into the home, now a museum whose walls remain
marked with bloodstains and bullet holes.

The soldiers shot his grandfather on the stairway and pulled family
members from their beds and fired at them, Wazed said. Among the dead,
who were later buried in unmarked graves, were his pregnant aunt,
grandmother and three uncles, including Russell, a 10-year-old boy, he
said.

Wazed said staff members who were there told him that when Russell
began crying and begging for his life, one of the officers took him
downstairs to hide. But after another officer commented, "He's going
to be like a snake that grows up and kills us," Ahmed and another
officer went down and shot the child, Wazed said.

"Not only did Mohiuddin participate, he killed a child in cold blood,"
Wazed said.

Ahmed's son, Rouben Mohiuddin, said that while it was "very
regrettable" that innocent people died during the coup, his "father
was over a mile away from the president's home when the shooting
began."

"I don't know what really happened inside the president's home that
night because I was not there. Nor was my father, who is innocent of
this crime."

Ahmed's lawyer, Joseph Sandoval, and the family are trying to have
Ahmed sent to a third country. Their drive gained momentum when a
federal appeals court said Thursday it would not enforce Ahmed's
deportation order until after April 16.

"We feel relieved that we are going to have a little bit more time,"
said Mohiuddin.

As of Friday, Ahmed was being held at Terminal Island detention center
in San Pedro. He and his wife have lived for 10 years in Los Angeles,
where he worked as a translator for the phone company.

At the time of the coup, Wazed, then 4, was on vacation in Germany
with his younger sister, father and 27-year-old mother, Sheikh Hasina
Wajed - one of two daughters who escaped the bloody political purge.
Wazed said returning Ahmed to Bangladesh would help his family and his
country heal; blocking or diverting his deportation would be a "severe
travesty of justice."

"Having had my own family brutally murdered, I can understand how no
one wants their loved ones to die. But what about my 10-year-old
uncle? What about justice for him? What about justice for my pregnant
aunt? What about justice for my grandmother?" he said.

"What did they ever do to anyone, to be dragged out of bed in the
middle of the night and shot?"

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deport28mar28,1,1654522.story...

LA Times
March 28, 2007

L.A. man fights deportation to Bangladesh - He faces execution for his
role in the South Asian country's 1975 military coup.
By Ashley Surdin, Times Staff Writer
ashley.sur...@latimes.com

A Venice man ordered to return to Bangladesh to face execution for his
role in a 1975 military coup is waging an eleventh-hour battle to
avoid deportation.

Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, 60, has been living in Los Angeles for the
last 10 years and working as a translator for a telephone company.

He was tried in absentia in Bangladesh in 1996, convicted of murder
and sentenced to death by hanging for taking part in the coup, which
led to the killings of the country's leader and most of his family.

Ahmed, then an army major, says that although he manned a roadblock a
mile from President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's home, he thought the
leader would be arrested peacefully.

"Myself and others believed that the orders we received were lawful,"
Ahmed said. "At no time was I, or my troops, involved in any
violence."

But Rahman and seven family members, including his wife and 10-year-
old son, were killed, and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that Ahmed had participated in terrorist activity.

"Even his own account of his actions established that he assisted or
otherwise participated in the persecution of persons on account of
their political opinion," a three-judge panel of the federal court
said last month.

Ahmed's family and lawyer want him deported to another country where
he could seek political asylum and fight his conviction. His lawyer,
Joseph Sandoval, said Ahmed cannot appeal in Bangladesh because he was
not in the country during his trial.

"Essentially, they want to take him from the plane to the gallows,"
Sandoval said. "We think that is fundamentally unfair." He added that
his client is not the "heinous person" the U.S. and Bangladesh
governments have made him out to be.

But time is running out. Ahmed was to have left the country Monday
night, but Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) called Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's office and requested a delay.

"Amnesty International and our State Department has questioned the
integrity of the Bangladeshi judicial system," said Tara Setmayer, a
spokeswoman for Rohrabacher.

"And because of that, Dana felt as though there would be no harm in
trying to buy some time for his legal counsel to find a country" where
he would not be put to death.

"Given the circumstances, he said he'd be willing to place a phone
call or two to buy some time and figure things out," she said.

On Tuesday, an immigration enforcement spokeswoman said the
deportation order remains in force. The spokeswoman refused to say
when Ahmed, who is being held at the Terminal Island detention center
in San Pedro, would be forced to leave.

"Right now, the family is just trying to keep it together, answer
questions and keep their hopes up," family friend Steve Paskay said.
"It's not over yet."

The 1975 coup in Bangladesh was spawned by a group of right-wing, pro-
Pakistan army officers in response to increasing authoritarianism
under left-leaning President Rahman, according to Sam Zarifi, Asian
research director for New York-based Human Rights Watch. It was known
as the Majors' Coup. There have been allegations that it was supported
by the United States.

After the coup, a period of military rule began and the government
absolved participants of wrongdoing. Ahmed served as a diplomat in
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other locations until 1996, when the
assassinated president's daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, came to
power.

In an interview with The Times in December 2000, Hasina spoke of
wanting to bring her father's killers, including Ahmed, to justice.

"One of the saddest chapters in our history was the brutal killing of
my father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and several family
members," Hasina said.

"Three of the convicted killers now live in the United States. I
requested the president's assistance in expeditious finalization of
the extradition treaty."

By the time his trial started, Ahmed was already in the United States
and had filed a request for political asylum under the provisions of
the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

But after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, immigration law
changed and Ahmed, accused of taking part in killing a head of state,
was no longer entitled to the convention's protections, the family
said.

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Legal Tangle Delays Convicted Bangladeshi Assassin's Deportation From
USA

http://www.newagebd.com/2007/apr/10/front.html#10

New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Legal tangle delays Mohiuddin's deportation from US

A court at Los Angeles will sit in a day or two to decide whether to
hear a petition filed by AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, a convicted fugitive in
Sheikh Mujubur Rahman murder case, for allowing him to continue to
stay in the United States.

The former army officer appealed to the 9th Circuit Court on March
30 for revoking an earlier order to deport him.

'The judges of the court will sit for a panel discussion within a
day or two upon the appeal. They will take a decision if a hearing of
the case will be held or not,' a release of the foreign ministry said
on Monday.

The release said a settlement of the matter would take time. If the
petition of Mohiuddin Ahmed is taken up for hearing again and if the
panel of judges turns down the appeal, then there will be no bar on
restarting the process for his deportation.

Bangladesh embassy in Washington DC and consulate in Los Angels
are in touch with the agencies concerned in the US in this regard.
Mohiuddin, 60, was arrested in southern California in the United
States on March 13. He became a fugitive in the US after a judge in
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected a petition
to review his case and ordered his deportation.

Earlier, the government issued travel permit through the Bangladesh
mission in Washington for bringing him back.

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http://www.voanews.com/bangla/2007-04-06-voa11.cfm

Voice Of America, Washington
06-April-2007

Bangabandhu's Convicted Killer Should be brought to Justice : Sajeeb
Wazed
By Iqbal Bahar Choudhury

Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed , the grandson of the founding father of Bangladesh
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said that the convicted Killer who
killed Bangabandhu and the members of his family including his ten
years old son Russell.

In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla Service , Sajeeb Wazed
describes the way in which the convicts were tried , found guilty and
were punished. He says that the alleged killers of Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members were tried in a normal
civil court so that there would not be any shadow of doubts about the
justice. Awami League government did not go for any special tribunal
to try these elements and therefore , the defendants had all the
opportunities to prove their innocence , if they were . In the event
of the trial , the court found some not guilty and they were released
while others including Mohiuddin were found guilty . He said that the
Bangabandhu Murder Case was a very transparent case.The higher court
has upheld the conviction verdict and Mohiuddin must be brought to
Justice.

He says that Mohiuddin Ahmed was the Commander of Lancer Brigade on
the night Bangabandhu was killed and he was responsible for leading
his brigade to attack and kill Bangabandhu and his entire family
including his minor son and his pregnant daughter-in-law.

It may be mentioned that Mohiuddin Ahmed has escaped the trial and is
running from justice in Bangladesh and has been illegally staying in
Washington. Recently the US Immigration Authority has decided to
deport him to Bangladesh and is staying in a detention center.

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