Letter to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Ms Khaleda Zia
Prime Minister
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd
Dear Ms Zia
I am extremely alarmed to learn of the trial of the award-winning journalist Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury for sedition. In addition to legal proceedings, he has been beaten, robbed and denied police protection. What is especially distressing is that Mr Choudhury has done nothing more than pursue his vocation as a journalist and his duty as a concerned citizen. I request your immediate intervention to end this travesty of justice.
Yours sincerely
Eamonn Fitzgerald
BACKGROUNDER: Muslim moderate journalist Salah Choudhury is on trial in Bangladesh for sedition, a capital offence, for speaking out against radical Islam and advocating diplomatic relations with Israel. He was arrested in November 2003 as he was about to board a flight for Israel after having established contact with an Israeli dialogue group, IFLAC. This was the beginning of a Kafkaeseque nightmare that has continued for three years. Pressure from the US led to his release on bail, but the persecution continues. The office of his newspaper, The Weekly Blitz, was recently bombed and Salah was badly beaten by a mob.
As a Rainy Day reader, you share, no doubt, our disgust at the repression and murder of journalists in Vladimir Putin's Russia, so we can surely expect that you will now take the time to send a quick e-mail to Prime Minister Zia condemning the cruelty of her government in this case. The fact is that if we don't help Salah, he may be convicted of treason and executed. Or he may be murdered by the radical Khatmey Nabuat movement. Even if spared the death penalty, his life will be destroyed by a long jail sentence. Speak out against this injustice! Write now!
