Govt yet to receive extradition request for Bestinet founder

 

The Home Ministry has yet to receive any formal request from Bangladesh for the extradition of Bestinet founder Aminul Islam Abdul Nor.

This follows the ministry’s earlier confirmation that it received a request from Bangladesh to detain the naturalised Malaysian citizen of Bangladeshi origin.

“As of now, I have not been given any updates on this issue. So far, the Interpol at Bukit Aman has received a report from Dhaka regarding their intentions,” said Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

“On the matter of extradition, there is nothing official yet,” he told reporters at a press conference after co-chairing the 12th joint committee meeting with Human Resources Minister Steven Sim on migrant worker management in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said this in response to questions about reports that Dhaka police had requested their Malaysian counterparts to detain Aminul and his associate Ruhul Amin and deport them to Bangladesh.

The two are accused of involvement in money laundering, extortion, and trafficking of migrant workers.

However, Aminul and Bestinet have denied the allegations.

Previously, Saifuddin (above) said the Malaysian government sought further clarification from Dhaka regarding the request, particularly whether the detentions were for extradition or further investigations.

“Dhaka must clarify the objective (of the detentions). If it is to record statements and conduct investigations, Dhaka must use the mutual legal assistance channels.

“However, if Dhaka intends to prosecute these individuals in a Bangladeshi court, they must formally request extradition,” he said.

Aminul is the founder and chairperson of Bestinet, the company managing the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS) used by the Malaysian government to process the entry of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers into the country.

Originally from Bangladesh, Aminul is now a Malaysian citizen. Although no longer the chairperson of Bestinet, he still holds shares in the company.

Meanwhile, Ruhul, a Bangladeshi citizen, runs Catharsis International, another company involved in foreign worker management.

Migrant worker recruitment

In a related development, Saifuddin announced that today’s meeting decided to maintain the freeze on migrant worker recruitment.

“The meeting discussed the status of the migrant worker recruitment freeze until Sept 30. Today, we noted that with the 15 percent ceiling out of the 17.2 million-strong workforce in the country would allow 2.58 million migrant workers to work here.

“As of now, the deficit for the 2.58 million migrant workers is only 45,000, and we have just one month to review this matter.

“For now, we have decided to maintain the recruitment freeze until the next meeting when a final decision will be made,” he said. - Mkini