The US has agreed to deport fugitive Bangabandhu murder convict Rashed Chowdhury, says Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader.
“The Trump administration has given the green light to deport the killer who is in the US,” he told a discussion on Thursday.
“The extradition of another fugitive from Canada has hit snags due to legal complications over the death penalty. But significant progress has been made over extraditing the killer in another country (the US)” said the road transport minister.
On Aug 15, 1975, a group of rogue military officers killed then Bangladesh president Sheikh Mujib and most of his family members.
The top court sentenced 12 people, including Chowdhury, to death for their role in the assassination. Five of them were hanged in 2011.
Bangladesh Ambassador to US Mohammad Ziauddin in an op-ed column wrote that Chowdhury had come to US in 1996 on a visit visa and applied for asylum.
He claimed the US “affirmed an initial grant of asylum” to Chowdhury and his family and was doing a background check on him.
The death-row convict had been moving around the country since then.
Chowdhury’s current visa status remains a mystery as immigration-related information is not publicly available in the US.
Bangladesh has been trying to get him back but there is no extradition treaty with the US.
However, officials say US law allows its government to deport a convict through bilateral arrangement.