Ex-high commissioner Khairuzzaman released in Malaysia
Bangladesh’s former high commissioner to Malaysia Mohamed Khairuzzaman was released from detention without any condition on Wednesday, reports Free Malaysia Today, a local news portal, quoting his lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying.
“He called me a few minutes ago to inform the good news,” Khairuzzaman’s wife, Rieta Rahman, quoted as saying.
“He told me his lawyers were there to receive him and were bringing him back to his house. Thank God and all those who have helped in his release. I thank the Malaysian authorities for this, too,” she told FMT in a telephonic interview.
Khairuzzaman, 70, told the FMT that he went “through much embarrassment after being detained following these false allegations by the Bangladeshi government”.
The former high commissioner further told the FMT that he would go to the US to his wife as soon as possible.
Malaysian home minister Hamzah Zainudin told a press conference on 10 February that there are allegations of Khairuzzaman’s involvement with crimes committed in Bangladesh. He was arrested, following all the procedures, as the country requested.
After several hours, contradicting the statement of Malaysian home minister Hamzah Zainudin, Bangladesh’s state minister for home affairs, Shahriar Alam told media that Malaysian home ministry sent a letter to the Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur saying that Khairuzzaman was arrested due to violation of the Malaysian laws related to immigration. “The government is working to bring back the former high commissioner as soon as possible.”
Mohamed Khairuzzaman was a former army official, who was made a diplomat during the time of military government on deputation.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Malaysia High Court stayed the deportation of Mohamed Khairuzzaman. The court also set 20 May to hear Khairuzzaman’s writ petition.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Khairuzzaman’s wife Rieta Rahman said the Malaysia High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan on Tuesday passed this interim order after a hearing on the habeas corpus case.
Immigration police of Malaysia arrested Khairuzzaman on 9 February morning from Ampang town in Selangor state of the country. Malaysia’s home minister Hamzah Zainudin confirmed his arrest.
Khairuzzaman’s lawyer AS Dhaliwal told FMT that his client is a political refugee. He is a UNHCR cardholder and has not broken any law regarding immigration. That’s why arresting him is an illegal act.
“My client has valid travel documents and was not even working here, he was just at home. He is a political refugee and Malaysia has no right to deport him,” he told FMT.
Earlier, on Friday, a Kuala Lumpur court in Malaysia had temporarily barred the deportation of Khairuzzaman. Now the High Court of the country has stayed the deportation.
A former army official, Mohamed Khairuzzaman was one of the main accused in the murder of four national leaders -- Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Mansur Ali and AHM Kamaruzzaman -- inside the central jail on 3 November 1975. Later, he was transferred to the foreign ministry.
Besides working at the foreign ministry in Dhaka, M Khairuzzaman worked at different posts of Bangladesh missions in Myanmar, Egypt and Philippines.
Upon coming to power in 1996 the Awami League government sent him on retirement and arrested as an accused in the jail killing case.
When the BNP-Jamaat alliance formed the government in 2001, M Khairuzzaman secured bail and got back his job. He was appointed as the director general of the foreign ministry.
Later, in 2004, M Khairuzzaman was acquitted from the jail killing case. In the next year he was appointed to the Bangladesh embassy in Myanmar. In August 2007, he was appointed as Bangladesh High Commissioner in Malaysia.
When Awami League formed government again in 2009, Khairuzzaman was ordered to return home. But he has been staying in Malaysia since then.
Later, Khairuzzaman acquired the refugee status given by UNHCR. The UNHCR gave him a card in March 2020 in this regard. The expiry date of the card is 2024.