“Shafik Rehman has admitted that he had held meetings with four people, three of whom were later convicted by a US court,” Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police told reporters at its media centre.
The senior journalist is currently on a five-day remand in a case filed for alleged plot to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
The three convicts Rehman had met are US-Bangladesh citizen Rizve Ahmed Caesar, former FBI special agent Robert Lustyik and his “contact” Johannes Thaler, said DMP spokesperson Monirul.
The police have in their possession records of the meetings including the dates of those, he further claimed.
Monirul, however, did not confirm if they in those meetings had discussed anything concerning Joy.
The police official, who also heads the DMP’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, made the claims hours after detectives raided Rehman’s apartment and office at the capital’s Eskaton and seized some documents from there.
On Saturday, plainclothes detectives detained Rehman after, his wife claims, entering the residence identifying themselves as journalists who wanted “to interview him”. Police have denied impersonating pressmen.
At the briefing yesterday, DMP official Monirul said Lustyik, in exchange for money, agreed to provide Caesar information about Joy such as the holding number of his apartment, his car’s licence plate number and his movements.
In the meantime, Rehman flew to the US in 2012 where the fourth person, a US-Bangladesh national, escorted him to the meeting.
Caesar also had couriered some documents to the daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman while Rehman received some documents through email, he said.
Asked why the names of Rehman and Mahmudur Rahman had not come up in the FBI’s investigation, Monirul said the US investigators only probed the allegations of leaking of their information and identified only those involved in the process.
Replying to a query if the information regarding Joy was collected for journalistic purposes, he said: “It is unusual to collect one’s apartment location for that.”
The DMP official further said Caesar’s father Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of the BNP’s cultural wing Jasas, had introduced him to Rehman.
Asked about Mahmudur Rahman’s involvement in the case, Monirul said detectives were looking into it.
A plea to show Mahmudur arrested and to put him on remand in the case is scheduled to be heard by a Dhaka court on April 25, he said.
Whether any BNP high-ups were involved in the alleged conspiracy could be confirmed only after the investigation, Monirul said in response to a query.
Shafik Rehman, who also holds British citizenship, worked in various media outlets, including the BBC, but came in the limelight after becoming editor of the weekly Jaijaidin in the 1980s.
According to the case statement, Caeser’s father Mamun and some top leaders of the BNP and its allies met in the UK, the US and various places of Bangladesh before September 2012 and conspired to abduct and kill the PM’s son.
In March last year, Caesar was convicted by a US court for bribing an FBI special agent to collect information regarding a Bangladeshi political figure.
The US Justice Department did not name the figure, but it is believed to be Joy.
In a Facebook post on March 9 last year, Joy, also ICT affairs adviser to the prime minister, accused BNP leaders of conspiring to abduct and kill him.
JOY’S POST
Meanwhile, Joy picked on the DMP official’s claims and said this proves Shafik Rehman’s involvement in the conspiracy against him.
“Confidential FBI files on my location in the US were hidden in a secret place in Shafik Rehman’s home. He admits to receiving them from convicted former FBI agent Robert Lustyk,” he said in a Facebook post.
“He also held several meetings with Rizve Ahmed Caesar and Johannes Thaler, the other two who were convicted by the US for plotting to kidnap and kill me … Anyone want to try and lie about this anymore?”
RAID ON REHMAN’S RESIDENCE
Around 12:30pm, detectives took Shafik Rehman to his Eskaton house and seized some files and documents, family sources told this newspaper.
A team of around 30 detectives came in three microbuses and 10 to 12 of them, including three top officials of Detective Branch of police took part in the hour-long search. They scoured also the office of the Democracywatch, an NGO founded by Shafik Rehman and his wife Taleya Rehman, added the sources.
Detectives took away several documents and files containing information about Joy, according to the sources.
Taleya, however, claimed her husband had collected those documents only out of his journalistic and personal interest.
“As a journalist, he used to get information and documents on different issues and he would preserve those. But that does not mean that he believed in those information or would publish those without verification.
“When the detectives were looking for the papers, my husband himself handed those over to them,” she said.
DB OFFICIALS MAY FLY TO US
A three-member DB team is likely to fly to the US in connection with the investigation of the case.
DB Deputy Commissioner (South) Mashrukure Rahman Khaled, who may head the team, has confirmed it.
The other members of the team are Additional Deputy Commissioner Rajib Al Masud and Senior Assistant Commissioner Hasan Arafat, who is the investigation officer of the case, he added.
Mashrukure, however, could not say the exact date and time of their departure.
