Aug. 25, 2023, 9:00 PM UTCA Ph.D. student at Michigan State University said his mother was arrested in Bangladesh after he criticized the country's government in a Facebook post.
Court documents translated by NBC News said that Rahman’s mother, Anisa Siddika, was arrested at 11:40 a.m. at her parents’ home and charged with “planning to sabotage various vital installations, conspiracies, and sabotage against the government in protest against the arrest of multiple leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.” Rahman said he had hired an attorney to work on the case and obtain these documents.
The Bangladesh Police did not respond to requests for comment. The Bangladesh Embassy and Consulate General of Bangladesh did not respond to request for comment. For Riaz, the most pressing issue is “the persecution of … families of the diaspora who speak out,” he said. “Someone who is away from Bangladesh, who is an adult, made a comment, whatever that comment is, expressed his opinion. That by no means legally, ethically, morally justified persecuting his family. The government is putting a different story for arresting the student’s mother, but that’s not a justifiable action by any means. And this is not exceptional.