The government is appointing a top New York-based law firm to fight the legal battle to bring back the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu and execute their death sentences.
Sources said the law firm will also work for the repatriation of the killers of the four national leaders.
The Dhaka Tribune has obtained a copy of a letter sent three days ago by the Ministry of Law to the ministries of finance and foreign affairs.
The letter says the Law Ministry has given permissions required for contracting Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates – Skadden in short – to help Bangladesh government fight the legal battle, especially for bringing those living in the USA and Canada.
Md Khademul Kayes, senior assistant secretary of the Law Ministry, wrote in the letter that his office now needed the Finance Division’s approval for paying Skadden’s fees.
The firm charges $50,000 in retainer payment and hourly fees of two of its lawyers – Gregory B Craig and Alex Haskell – $1,275 and $700 respectively. The government will also have to bear the “out of pocket expenses,” among other expenditures, mentioned in a draft contract.
The letter does not specify any time period for the retainer payment but says the amount has to be deposited in an “interest bearing escrow account” by the end of April this year.
An escrow account is established with a bank to hold funds as an intermediary between two parties involved in a transaction.
The Law Ministry also asked the finance and foreign affairs ministries to discuss the modalities of making those payments so that Skadden’s appointment could be finalised.
Normally, to bring a foreign national tried and convicted in absentia to face sentence, the authorities would have to invoke whatever extradition agreements that may exist between the governments.
Where there is no extradition treaty, it is unclear what the basis would be to repatriate convicts and carry out their death sentences in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh does not have extradition treaties with the USA, the UK and Canada. In the USA, death penalty is a recognised form of punishment in 32 of its 52 states and in their military jurisdiction. But Canada and the UK have abolished death penalty.
Founded in 1948, Skadden, with nearly 2,000 attorneys, is one of the largest, most prestigious and highest-grossing law firms in the world.
When contacted, Law Minister Anisul Huq told the Dhaka Tribune last night: “The New York-based law firm has already started working to bring back Bangabandhu’s killers … The Foreign Ministry has also confirmed the matter and we have signed a one-year contract.”
In 2009, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh upheld a High Court verdict that handed down death sentence to 12 for killing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family on August 15, 1975.
Five of them – Syed Farooq Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Mohiuddin Ahmed – were executed in January 2010. Another fugitive convict Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe in 2001.
In June 2007, AKM Mohiuddin was extradited to Bangladesh from the United States, following a series of failed attempts by him to gain asylum or permanent residency there.
The six others – Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, Nur Chowdhury, Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin Khan – have been absconding. Two of them are said to be living in the USA and Canada but the locations of the other four are not known.
Citing legal complications, the Canadian government has turned down several requests from Bangladesh regarding extraditing Nur Chowdhury.
