The Bangladesh government has denied media reports that Canada has scrapped an asylum plea by Noor Chowdhury, a self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and ordered his deportation.
Chowdhury, sentenced to death in the Bangabandhu assassination case, is now a fugitive in Canada.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said on Saturday that the Bangladesh High Commission in Ottawa had confirmed that the report was ‘untrue.’
“After reports in the Bangladeshi media, the foreign minister spoke to me from New York. The high commissioner (in Canada) has confirmed it is totally untrue,” he told reporters at his office.
The minister said the envoy reached out to the Bangladesh desk at the Canadian foreign office as well as Chowdhury’s lawyers.
Bangladesh has requested Canada several times to extradite Chowdhury, but Ottawa turned down the request citing legal issues involved.
The court sentenced Noor Chowdhury to death for the massacre of the family of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Aug 15, 1975.
The Canadian legal system does not allow deportation of any foreign citizen who might face the death penalty in his home country.
Source: bdnews24