{"id":476369,"date":"2022-01-19T15:24:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T15:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpj.org\/?p=159918"},"modified":"2022-01-19T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T15:24:01","slug":"exiled-bangladeshi-journalist-kanak-sarwar-says-sisters-detention-wont-silence-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/19\/exiled-bangladeshi-journalist-kanak-sarwar-says-sisters-detention-wont-silence-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Exiled Bangladeshi journalist Kanak Sarwar says sister\u2019s detention won\u2019t silence him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
For years, exiled Bangladeshi journalist Kanak Sarwar advised his family members not to keep public profiles on Facebook, fearing his critical reporting would lead to harassment by supporters of the Awami League-led government. So he was alarmed when his sister, Nusrat Shahrin Raka, told him in September that someone had created a fake Facebook account using her name, email address, phone number, and photos to publish posts critical of authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That fake profile would land Raka in jail. On October 5, four days after she reported<\/a> the account to a local police station, members of the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite paramilitary unit of the Bangladesh police, raided<\/a> her home and detained her and her three sons, all under 18. The unit alleged in a press release, which CPJ reviewed, that Raka was an \u201cactive member of an anti-state propaganda and conspiracy circle\u201d with the \u201ctreasonous Kanak Sarwar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rapid Action Battalion, which was sanctioned<\/a> by the U.S. government in December for gross human rights violations, released Raka\u2019s sons after 30 hours, said Sarwar. But the Rapid Action Battalion kept Raka behind bars. On October 5, it filed a first information report, the first step in a police investigation, alleging that she authored the Facebook posts in violation of the Digital Security Act. The next day, it filed an additional first information report, claiming it had seized methamphetamines from Raka\u2019s home in violation of the Narcotics Control Act. (The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has accused<\/a> the battalion of<\/a> planting evidence<\/a>, including illegal drugs, at crime scenes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarwar, who lives in the United States, told CPJ that his sister\u2019s ongoing detention is in retaliation for his criticism of the Bangladesh government on his YouTube channel, Kanak Sarwar News<\/a>. Sarwar, who worked as a journalist in Bangladesh for more than 20 years, fled the country in 2016 after he was detained<\/a> for nine months when his outlet, Ekushey TV, broadcasted an opposition figure\u2019s speech on the one-year anniversary of the Awami League\u2019s victory in the violent 2014 parliamentary elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Facebook spokesperson told CPJ via email that the fake account has been removed for violating the company\u2019s policies on \u201cinauthentic behavior<\/a>\u201d but could not confirm who set up the account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CPJ emailed the offices of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Attorney General Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin, and Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam, for comment but did not receive any reply. Khandaker Al Moyeen, the director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, did not respond to CPJ\u2019s request for comment sent via messaging app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sarwar spoke to CPJ via video call regarding his sister\u2019s ongoing detention, the Bangladesh government\u2019s efforts to silence his voice in exile, and the impact on his journalistic work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did you find out about your sister’s arrest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I came to know about my sister\u2019s arrest almost 20 hours [after it occurred]. When the Rapid Action Battalion handed over my sister and her three children to the police, my nephew called me over the phone [while he was still in custody]. He was tremendously intimidated, and I heard his voice shaking, and he was crying in fear. Around this time, the Rapid Action Battalion leaked the news and pictures of my sister’s arrest to the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could not believe it at first. I was speechless momentarily. I felt helpless, which I did not feel even during my detention in Bangladesh by the same autocratic regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within hours of my communication with my sources in Bangladesh, I learned that because my sister filed a general diary<\/a> [a police complaint] against the fake Facebook account, the prosecution\u2019s merit in the case was zero. That is why they filed an additional complaint against her under the Narcotics Control Act: to allow the government more tools to lengthen her jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n