CAT/C/46/D/338/2008
demonstrations, held speeches, in close contact with Professor Chouwdhury, the founder of
the party, and his son Mahi Chouwdhury. He also helped in organizing local committees of
the party.
2.2 In 2004, Mahi Chouwdhury was elected as an MP from the BDB party. The
complainant worked actively for the election, and allegedly had received several death
threats from the rival Bangladesh National Party (BNP) militants. Both the complainant and
the BDB’s founder Professor Chouwdhury were members of the BNP before founding and
joining the BDB. The complainant was warned that he would be killed, that the BNP would
make false accusations against him to the police, that his brother would be kidnapped, and
that his home would be destroyed. In the meantime, several supporters of the BDB were
persecuted by the police.
2.3 On 20 June 2004, during a celebration of the BDB victory, a close friend of the
complainant was killed by the BNP supporters. On 21 June 2004, the BDB held a
demonstration in protest against the killing. When the complainant returned at his home, the
police arrested him and informed him that he was suspected of having killed his friend
because of political rivalry. He was brought to the police station and charged with the
murder. He was asked to confess guilty, and when he refused, the police officers beat him
with iron bars on the sole of his feet, he was hang upside down, beaten with riffle butts and
fists, and burned with cigarettes on his back. The officers allegedly have also put a hot iron
in his rectum, as a result of what he had lost consciousness. He was kept at the police
station for 48 hours and was released only because Mahi Chouwdhury bribed the police.
After his release, the complainant went to the Dhaka Clinic, and was treated there for a
week.
2.4
On 10 August 2004, the complainant was arrested again. He was accused of having
attacked “Khaleda Zia’s” motorcade in 1999. The complainant was kept in custody for
three days, and was again released after the payment of a bribe. In the meantime, however,
he was asked to testify against the other accused persons for the attack in question, and after
his refusal to cooperate, he was allegedly raped by three officers. After release, he was
placed in the hospital and remained there for five days.
2.5
The complainant is a Hindu, a religious minority group which is allegedly harassed
and persecuted in Bangladesh. He claims that Muslims try to take possession of the Hindu’s
land by force or by false papers and destroy their prayer houses. The complainant’s
family’s prayer house was among those destroyed. Hindu women are raped, and Hindus are
systematically discriminated against at work.
2.6
The complainant claims that he is an active homosexual. A Muslim friend of his
informed other people about this fact and as a result, the Imam of the area issued a death
fatwa against him. Few days after his release from his second arrest, the complainant’s
house was surrounded by a group of Muslims searching for him, who subjected his family
to violence and caused several material damages, vandalizing the family’s grocery store. He
further claims Hinduism also forbids homosexual relations and that, for this reason, he had
had problems with his family. When he was leaving his home town, stones were thrown at
him and his family refused to talk to him.
2.7
The complainant then decided to go to Dhaka. There he found out that not only
Islamist fundamentalists but also the police was searching for him because of the false
accusations against him and because of his homosexuality. He decided then to leave the
country. Mahi Chouwdhury organized his flight, through a smuggler. He adds that, while in
Dhaka, he tried to commit suicide.
2.8
After his arrival in Sweden, the complainant contacted his family, and found out that
the local Imam and other individuals forced them to leave the area. The complainant’s
boyfriend was also obliged to leave Bangladesh shortly after his departure.
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