Bangladesh human rights activist detained at KLIA

Suaram condemns arrest of Adilur Rahman Khan who arrived this morning to attend a conference in Kuala Lumpur on the abolition of the death penalty.

PETALING JAYA: The arrest of a Bangladeshi human rights activist at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) this morning has been condemned by a local rights group.

Adilur Rahman Khan was detained by immigration officers at KLIA at about 4am today. Khan is the secretary of Odhikar, a human rights NGO based in Bangladesh.

He had travelled to Malaysia to attend a conference on the topic of “Abolition of the death penalty”.

“Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) condemns the detention of Adilur Rahman Khan.

“As of 10am, no reason has been given by immigration officers as to why he was detained. However, Suaram was informed that Khan has now been moved to the immigration lock-up,” Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said in a statement.

The NGO urged the authority to release Khan and called for an end to the “persistent harassment against human rights defenders visiting Malaysia”.

This is the latest action taken against foreign human rights activists by the Malaysian government.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International (AI) said it was concerned over the barring of Singapore human rights defender Han Hui Hui from entering Malaysia last month.

Han had been blocked from entering the country after having been labelled an “undesirable immigrant” by the home minister.

“AI notes that this is not the first time the government has barred peaceful activists from entering Malaysia.

“In recent years, Hong Kong political activist Joshua Wong and Indonesian human rights defender Mugiyanto Sipin have been prevented from visiting the country, as well”.