Front Burner - The assassin next door

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Nearly 50 years ago Nur Chowdhury was at the centre of an assassination and coup that killed Bangladesh’s first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was convicted by a court in Bangladesh, but now he lives in a Toronto suburb. Mark Kelley, co-host of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, shares his investigation into why the Canadian government still hasn’t deported Chowdhury to face justice. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Damon Fairless. Nearly 50 years ago, Bangladesh was rocked by a military coup. Reports from India tonight, President Mujibar Rahman was shot to death in the presidential palace. The country had recently won independence, but it was also highly unstable, and its president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been struggling to maintain authority.

Sheikh Mujib went from public adulation amounting to hysteria to disaster and death in just three and a half years. The president's assassination shaped Bangladesh's politics, its economics, and also its psyche. For a lot of Bangladeshis, the trauma of his death is still fresh. And part of that is that the man who's been convicted of killing Sheikh Mujibur has been living free here in Canada, despite a deportation order from the Canadian government. Mark Kelly is one of the co-hosts of the CBC's Fifth Estate. He's been investigating this story and

he's here to tell us about it. Hey Mark, good to have you back on Front Burner. It's great to be here as always. All right, so at the center of this story is an assassination and like a startling one too. So let's start with that. What happened on August 15th, 1975? Yeah, I think a lot of people when they hear assassination, you're thinking of some, you know, a guy in a book repository with a long range rifle or something. But this was something very different what happened on that day. We're talking about an assault that took place at the official residence of the president of Bangladesh and his family as they slept in the wee hours of the morning.

And a group of soldiers who went into the residence firing and going room to room looking for the president. And they not only killed the president, they would kill his wife, they would kill his three sons, the youngest being just 10 years old. They would kill a pregnant daughter-in-law. This was a massacre. And this was a massacre with intent. And the intent was to kill every member of that family, not only to wipe out the president, but to take with him his entire family. And they almost succeeded in doing all that, except for the fact that two of the daughters were out of the country at the time. But beyond that, the bloodbath was very thorough. And then after that, they go to take over a radio station to announce to the country that Sheikh Mujib was dead and there would be a new regime in control. So let's talk about the political backdrop for this assassination, this massacre, as you said. So what's happening in Bangladesh in the early and mid 1970s? Well, it was such a dramatic shift because Bangladesh used to be called East Pakistan.

So you had East Pakistan and West Pakistan that were on either side of India, but it was a marriage of inconvenience. Post separation.paration. my life for them. The question does not arise. I have no self-interest. They know it. That triggered a bloody civil war. Sheikh Mujib was imprisoned by the Pakistani forces. But after months of a civil war, Bangladesh would emerge triumphant and would emerge a now independent country. How would you describe your foreign policy, Prime Minister? Is it one of non-alignment? Yes. Non-alignment? Yes. Non-alignment, independent, neutral, foreign policy. We believe in peaceful coexistence and world peace and friendship to all and malice to none.

One of the first countries to recognize its independence would be Canada, the government of Pierre Trudeau. But after that, this was a government that had very little in place. The war itself was costly and very bloody. Bangladesh was an international basket case, and not only because of the civil war. There were floods, droughts, cyclones, famine, corruption, and poverty, and almost no machinery to deal with them. You name it, this country suffered it. All of this leading up to

1975. Sheikh Mujib is trying to keep control, so he starts nationalizing newspapers. He starts cracking down on opposition. He starts setting up his own militia to look for those voices of opposition that are out there. And that's where, with this own militia to look for those voices of opposition that are out there. And that's where with this own militia and the army, there started to grow this rift. So the standing army then had its concerns, and they were the ones ultimately who then would pull off the military coup. So this is a live issue in Bangladesh still. It's an emotional issue.

And when you went there, you went to the residence where the president was killed along with his family. It's been preserved as a kind of monument to him and a remembrance of that massacre. When you were there, you spoke with the only living witness to that massacre, Abdul Rahman Sheikh Rama. He was 12 years old at the time. He was a helper and a playmate of the president's son. So you spoke to him through his 17-year-old daughter who was translating. What did he tell you he remembered from that night? Well, he walked us through the house. And you're right, it is now a museum.

And that assassination has been frozen in time. And it's quite eerie because they still have i mean like the the bed linens and and and things in the in the bedroom that belong to sheikh mujib from the day but there's also as you walk through and as he was walking describing waking up in the early hours hearing gunshots running down to try to find out make sense of what was going on seeing these soldiers descending on the official residence where he runs back into the house as they're going room to room looking for Sheikh Mujib. But as you walk around now today, you see the bullet holes, deep, big bullet

holes in the walls. You even see bloodstains. And I just mentioned that just to give an idea of how graphic it was and how traumatic it was. So as we're walking through here with this last living eyewitness to what happened there, it's really a heartbreaking story to remind how both thorough and bloodthirsty this coup was, and the effects it's had on this man today, still to this day, who lives haunted by that experience. Every time he comes here, he gets nervous. He feels suffocated. He feels bad. He was sleeping there and then he heard gunshots and then he came up there and then someone came forward and shot him. And that's how he saw. But I mean, he would stop occasionally as we were talking,

and especially where we got to the stairs. The stairs were Sheikh Mujib. He came to the top of the stairs. Two men with submachine guns were at the bottom of the stairs. They killed him. He watched him fall down the stairs. And he's describing that.

You can still see the blood marks on the stairs, describing that to us very graphically with, you know, as he's sopping his eyes, because it still has that impact on him. 48 years later. He would say that it would be better for me to die, because the trauma that I have in my entire life and the trauma that I am going through till now is just unacceptable. So you also interviewed the country's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. She's the longest-serving head of the government in Bangladesh's history. She's also the daughter of the President, Sheikh Mujib.

So what did she have to say about her father's murder in 1975? What was her experience? Well, she was out of the country with her sister. The two sisters were in Europe at the time and were then being contacted to break the news to them by phone. And she was stunned. Then the ambassador told me. I couldn't say anything to my sister. I just went to her. I just hold her.

But I couldn't say anything. It was very difficult time for us. Again, you talk about something that may seem like, oh, it's old history, it's 48 years ago. But as I'm sitting face to face with the prime minister, it's still so alive because, and this is central to our story, is there's no closure. There's unfinished business out there for Sheikh Hasina herself now that she's in a position to try to find all the killers. Not only a killer of her, not only a killer of her father, but a killer of her family. And her describing what it was like when the news was

broken to her and she was with her sister and she could barely find words to be able to tell that story to us about the impact on her and her sister. So I'm curious when you talk to her about Nur Chowdhury, the man who's believed to have killed her father, what did she tell you? Well, I mean, she has no doubt in her mind that Noor Chowdhury was one of the conspirators and one of the people who pulled the trigger to kill her father. She has no doubt in her mind and so how did she feel knowing that he's here in canada and he's been here for a while and probably won't be going back anytime soon he's been here for 27 years and as you know one of the first things she said to us as we sat down and began the interview she was like well welcome to bangladesh and thank you for coming to

bangladesh and we have such great relations with Canada, except for one thing. As she said, one little thing that pinches and that would be the fate of Noor Chowdhury. And she's clearly frustrated because she was first elected in 1996. And that's when she began the hunt for the killers to bring them to justice. And it's a pursuit that continues to this day. And what she feels is there's a certain hypocrisy coming from the Canadian government. That you'll go around the world

and you'll preach human rights and justice and liberty and freedom. You'll talk about that. She looked across the table at me and she says, but what about my rights? What about me or my sister or our relatives, those who lost our nearest dearest? So where is our human rights? So they think about the killers, human rights, but not me, mine or ours. How it can be? Tell me. pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC

Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cups. I just want to talk a little bit about Noor Chowdhury, the man who's,

you know, alleged to have killed her father. You say he's been here in Canada for 27 years, and there's been an order to deport him in 2006. So what do we know about his life here in Canada? Very little. I mean, and I think this, I'm assuming is by design that, that Nor Chowdhury has tried to keep a low profile as possible. We found out where he's currently living in West Toronto and we went out to just to get a lay of the land. And then we, we were startled when he walked out onto his balcony, third floor condominium balcony, uh, where he's got a bunch of plants that he's keeping and he was tending to his plants.

He's a 72-year-old man. And yeah, he's been living a very, very quiet life here. And he came here on a visitor's visa, been here ever since. And he's gone through this legal odyssey to stay in this country. But at the same time, he's really done as much as he can to keep that low profile. We did speak to some of his neighbors who said, you know, great guy, don't know anything about his past. Great guy, nice, see him in the hallways, waves, always smiling, cheering guy. So he's living there with his wife and, as I say, keeping a very low profile.

There is that one exception to this quiet life that he went on CBC Radio on The Current in 2011. That's right. And he talked to Anna Maria Tremondi, who was interviewing at the time. So what did Noor Chowdhury say about the allegations that he killed the Bangladeshi president? Yeah, he says that he's the victim of a political vendetta. I'm innocent. I have not assassinated the president. That's why I'm here today. I have been set up. I seek justice and protection from the government of Canada.

But, I mean, but forgive me. I mean, it sounds like you knew that you would be prosecuted for something, so you looked for a place to go, and you came here. Did you suspect that you would be charged? Did you suspect that you would be charged? I didn't suspect, but I always thought Hasina knew and was seeking a vendetta against me. He has this alibi that says that in the wee hours of that morning when the assassination took place, when the coup had taken place, that he was at home. He had been making T-shirts for a pro-Mujib rally the next day, and he was working on that. But he was also a fierce critic of Sheikh Mujib. So that's why he believes that

he is the victim of a political vendetta, that Sheikh Hasina always had it out for him because he had been criticizing the policies of Sheikh Mujib prior to his assassination. And that's how he got linked to this assassination. But in fact, he says he's been framed for this. He was never there. He had nothing to do with it. And you've run that argument by Sheikh Hasina. What was her reaction to that?

She doesn't believe him. Absolutely lie. Absolutely lie. Because I'm telling you, we know everybody who knows that. And you did try to speak to him. Yeah, we contacted him. We were trying to contact him through his lawyer, and she was unsuccessful in actually contacting him. And eventually one day when we were outside, he came in his vehicle to pick up his wife, who was standing in front of their condominium building.

So I did have an opportunity to talk to him, ask him for an interview, ask him a couple of questions. But he hit the gas pedal and sped away from us. And after 27 years here, it seems he had nothing more to say. Okay, so the case, the legal case in Bangladesh against Noor Chowdhury is long. Can you kind of give me the bullet points, the quick and easy version for me to digest on what the key points of that case were? what the key points of that case were. Well, I mean, we wanted, we, you know, as journalists, we will take his story at face value that there are two very different versions of what happened there, that there's no doubt that there was a political coup, but who was there in that building in that wee hours of

August 15th, 1975. So what we were able to do is we were able to talk to the prosecutor of the case who detailed the case against him. We were able to talk to the original police investigator who had interviewed more than 500 people as part of an investigation. We were able to get our hands on previously sealed eyewitness testimonies. And there's one name that comes up time and time and time again, and that's the name of Noor Chowdhury, placing him as somebody who had been in secret discussions with high level army officials prior in the weeks prior to the assassination. People who said that they saw him in the official residence the morning of that massacre, armed with a submachine gun.

They saw him, and these are multiple, three different witnesses who spoke to the court officials and police officials, who then also testified that one who said they saw him shoot Sheikh Mujib on the stairwell where he fell to his death. And another witness who said he came out of the building, Noor Chowdhury did, after the assassination says, I have just killed Sheikh Mujib. So as far as the Bangladeshi officials are concerned, they have a rock solid case against Noor Chowdhury in placing him with the conspirators before, in the building at the time, and in the radio station after the assassinations when they were telling the nation what had happened that he was there for every step of the way that's the

case against newer chowdhury which is considered in in the eyes of the court he was convicted and sentenced to death that was then sent to the supreme court for an appeal and the fact and found that of some of the charges against some of the convicted were actually thrown out but not against Noor Chowdhury. And is your sense, I mean, because we've got a current government who obviously has skin in the game so to speak with her father having been assassinated, is your sense that the procedure at this trial, these trials, I should say, were legit? Whatever my sense is worth little, but I can tell you this, that Amnesty International, they were watching the proceedings at the time back in the day, and that they said that these

were free and fair trials. But one thing to point out is that both the current law minister who was then the prosecutor in the case, and Shea Cassina, the prime minister, they were both keenly aware of something. And they mentioned this in our interviews, they knew the world was watching. They knew these would be highly scrutinized trials. And one of the most revealing moments, I think, when we had in our interview with Shea Cassina, she said, you know, when I was after I was elected, I think, when we had in our interview with Shea Kucina. She said, you know, when I was, after I was elected, I could have just reached out and killed him. And she made this gesture with her hands, sort of grabbing air. Like I could have just grabbed him like that, but I didn't.

And then she gets the finger wagging at me. She says, instead, we follow the law, rules of law in the country. I said, justice should be done and people should see that. Let's go back to 1975, just after the assassination. What happens to Nord Chaudhry? What happens to the other people who are alleged perpetrators of this attack? Tell me where they went and what they did. Yeah, it was very interesting because after the assassination, most of them were given diplomatic postings, including Nord Chaudhry. But one thing that was very important is the

military government that came in post uh military coup they passed an uh indemnity law which meant that they were actually immune from prosecution so as long as this government would be in power there you would nobody was in a position to be able to lay charges or even open an investigation uh against any of these people nur chowdhury would end up traveling the world he ends up being the ambassador to to Iran. He was in Hong Kong, was his last posting up until 1996 when Sheikh Hasina is elected. So he enjoyed, you know, a very solid career in the Foreign Service representing Bangladesh post-assassination. And when he was asked about that by Anna Maria Tremonti, he said, it had nothing to do with that, because I had nothing to do with the

assassination. And yes, some of these people who are self-confessed were given the same terms, the same job postings or similar postings as Nur Chowdhury. He said, yeah, but that was them. For me, it was different. I just got those things based on my skills and my accomplishment. Okay. So he's in Hong Kong on a diplomatic posting when Sheikh Majib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, is elected prime minister of Bangladesh in 96. She recalls Chowdhury from his post, right? And then what happens?

Well, he disappears. For a while, nobody knew where he was. Well, he turns up in Canada. So that's why he ends up here. He then applies for refugee status. And years later, eventually, that claim would be denied. Let's talk about this process to sort out Nord Chowdhury's refugee claim here in Canada. It's a years-long process, right?

Can you walk me through that? Yeah, because there are various levels to it. I mean, he applies for the refugee status and that would be denied. He's interviewed by the Immigration and Refugee Board. They want to hear his case. They want to know more about his claims of innocence. So that's all documented as well. They would study the matter, a matter of adjudication that takes several years. But at the end, the long and short of it is they didn't buy it. They didn't buy his story. They said his alibi was simply implausible. As far as they were concerned, he was a fugitive from justice, and they would rule him to be

inadmissible to Canada. A deportation order was issued for him in 2006, and it looked like it could be the end of the road for him. Why wasn't that deportation order followed? What happened there? were to be deported, would you face death or torture in your home country? The answer is yes, he has been sentenced to death. Canada, we of course oppose the death penalty, we oppose capital punishment. The Supreme Court considers it a violation of constitutional rights to send anybody back to face the death penalty or torture, even if you're in Canada and not a Canadian citizen, even just by virtue of the fact that he has his feet in this country, he's protected by these laws that say, we will not send you back to face the death penalty in your country. And that death penalty has saved his life. The Bangladesh government has not been happy about this.

Tell me about the interactions between the Bangladeshi government and the Canadian government. Well, they've been going on for years, decades even, that they've been making these efforts. I mean, all the way back to 1996 when Sheikh Hasina was first elected. But it got to a point that essentially talks went cold. But we wanted to know, okay, so is that the end of the line? Or are there other options that could be used to at least continue the conversation or the negotiation or whatever you want to call it over the fate of Noor Chowdhury? And there are. There was the possibility that he could be deported to a third country or Canada negotiates and demands from the government of

Bangladesh to take the death penalty off the table. Canada has done this with the United States. Canada has done this with China. When we've had fugitives in the country that these countries wanted back, they said, we're not sending this, these people back to their death. So there there's precedent and there's room to negotiate here, but in order to have negotiations, you have to have a conversation. And the Bangladeshi government has been asking for a minister to minister meeting between ideally the two justice ministers from each country for five, six, seven, eight years. They're a little unclear on how long it's been. It's never happened. Five, six, seven, eight years. They're a little unclear on how long it's been. It's never happened. And that's part of the problem as well, that it's hard to negotiate an end to this when one side of this partnership isn't talking.

Yeah. So we're at this kind of stalemate or this stasis, I guess, where we've got the government of Bangladesh, including Sheikh Hasina, who's quite frustrated. We've got a deportation order that isn't being followed because of the concern he'll go back to a death penalty. So Mark, I guess I'm wondering after the Fifth Estate investigation, what do you think is going to happen in North Chowdhury? Well, there's one last little plot twist to this saga and that's the fact that yes, our Supreme Court has said it's unconstitutional to send people back to face death or torture in their home country, unless it's under exceptional circumstances. So would this case qualify as an exceptional circumstance? That's the question that the Bangladeshi government

would like to see answered. So they'd love to see the Canadian government act on that deportation order. And then Chowdhury's lawyer would have to go to the test that to the Supreme Court to test does this case qualify as an exceptional circumstance or not? And if it doesn't, then perhaps the government of Bangladesh would be open to the idea of taking the death penalty off the table. Perhaps that would be what would solve the matter in this case, because it's still alive, as we talked about earlier. 48 years later, being in the streets of Bangladesh, it's clear with the banners of Sheikh Mujib aligning the streets there

that this is an open wound. This is a country that is not willing to forgive and forget and move on. This is a country that wants closure. And it's really looking to the Canadian government to do its part to help it find that closure. All right, Mark, thank you so much. It's a really amazing story. Great documentary and really appreciate you coming on. Thanks for having me. You can check out the Fifth Estate's full documentary, The Assassin Next Door, on YouTube. That's all for today.

I'm Damon Fairless. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner, and I'll talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.