 |
 |
 |
|
|
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was to have addressed the Hebrew Writers' Association in efforts to give Bangladeshis more balanced news from Israel.
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
12/01
The Daily Star, Bangladesh |
|
11/30
Albawaba.com |
 |
| |
 |
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is led away by police shortly after his arrest in Bangladesh.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Ellis Shuman December 2, 2003 |
|
| |
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) yesterday voiced its "dismay" at the arrest of Bangladeshi magazine editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury in Dhaka on November 29, as he was about to leave for Israel to take part in a symposium. Choudhury is accused of spying for Israel on the basis of the text of a speech he was to have given on the role of the media in the dialogue between Muslims and Jews. "He could be charged with sedition for which the sentence could be death," RWB said.
"While the international community is debating a new peace plan for the Middle East, the government of Bangladesh decides to arrest a journalist who advocates a peaceful solution to the conflict," Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan, calling on him to intercede to get Choudhury released on bail.
Choudhury, 38, the editor of the Bangladeshi weekly entertainment magazine Blitz, was detained by police at Dhaka airport as he was about to board a flight to Tel Aviv via Bangkok. A Dhaka judge granted police permission to hold him for seven days. He is reportedly being held in Cantonment police station where secret service officers are said to be interrogating him in an attempt to get him to admit to spying for Israel.
Choudhury was to have addressed the Hebrew Writers' Association in Israel's "Bridges Through Culture" symposium yesterday in Tel Aviv. The subject of his speech, the first ever of a Bangladeshi journalist in Israel, was "The Role of the Media in Establishing Peace." In his speech, Choudhury planned to stress the key role which the news media of the Muslim countries have to play in constructing peace in the Middle East.
Choudhury was also to have been hosted at a reception in Haifa of the International Forum for Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC), an organization which links writers who campaign for peace. IFLAC president, Professor Ada Aharoni, organized the event to mark the opening of its Bangladesh branch - the first ever Israeli organization in the Muslim nation. Choudhury had been appointed IFLAC International Director in Bangladesh.
Aharoni told Reporters Without Borders by telephone that her organization has no links with the Israeli authorities. She said she deeply deplored Choudhury's arrest, which she described as an unwarranted attack on an advocate of dialogue between Muslims and Jews. IFLAC recently held a symposium that brought together Muslim and Jewish intellectuals in Turkey.
During his visit in Israel, Choudhury planned to meet with members of the Israeli media as part of his efforts to bring the people of Bangladesh and other non-Arab Muslim nations more balanced news about Israel and the Middle East.
Ahead of his trip, Chourdhury wrote: "During this seminar and some other events, I will once again try to project the importance of the ending of terrorism and terrorist attacks in Israel and through my paper I will try to give [as much] information [as I can] on the [surge] of radical Islam."
According to RWB, Bangladeshi secret services claim that the documents found in Choudhury's briefcase, "especially the text of his speech and reports about the human rights situation in Bangladesh, are evidence of spying on behalf of Israel. A few hours after his arrest, police seized all the computer equipment, including printers and CD-ROMs, at the offices of his magazine and at his home."
Bangladeshi officials and local media claimed that Choudhury's efforts were "assigned by the Zionist Intelligence." In an apparent campaign to vilify Choudhury's name, the local media reported on an alleged secret trip to Israel last month and Choudhury's "membership" in the Mossad.
"As [Choudhury] is engaged in spying and smuggling information out of the country and is involved in tarnishing the image of the country for a long time, he should be remanded for quizzing to extract more information from him," police said, as reported in the Bangladeshi Daily Star.
Local police said different fax and e-mail messages seized from Choudhury also proved that he passed sensitive information out of the country.
According to Choudhury's brother, Sohail, the Bangladeshi journalist is in "good spirits" and confident that everything "will turn out well." Sohail Choudhury said that Bangladeshi authorities have admitted that they do not have evidence of Choudhury's alleged crimes, which means that an independent review can order his release at any time.
Choudhury has worked with various Bangladeshi and international media organizations as a contributing writer and editor, and a director. He is editor of Weekly Blitz and Weekly Jamjamat and the chairman of Sonali Television. A working journalist, he contributes to all major dailies and periodicals in Bangladesh, and has been awarded several honors for establishing the first private television channel in Bangladesh, among other accomplishments.
Bangladesh and Israel have no diplomatic relations and Bangladeshis do not have the right to travel to Israel.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
