Joy: Amnesty helping to bring puppet govt to powe

“I suspect Amnesty International is serving some political agenda. They have become the arm of some governments who want to destabilise our country, with the aim of bringing a puppet government to power,” he said in a Facebook post on Saturday.

Earlier, Amnesty published a report last week saying the government stifled freedom of expression and its various attempts to silence critical coverage has resulted in more restrictions on the media in recent years.

Regarding the report, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Joy said: “Amnesty International is advocating on behalf of criminals. They are saying that as citizens we do not even have the right to sue journalists in civil court to protect our good name. This is something we need to protest strongly.

He also cited the examples of journalists Shafiq Rahman and Mahfuz Anam while talking about Amnesty’s report which claimed that media freedom was being restricted and journalists were harassed in Bangladesh.

He said Shafiq Rahman would still be in US jail for bribing former FBI agent, even if people put aside the fact that he (Shafiq Rahman) planned to kidnap and kill him (Joy).

“He [Mahfuz Anam] admitted to running a smear campaign against her to help an illegal military government take power in our country. Yet, our Government did not file any charges against him” he said adding that all Awami League men who suffered during that military dictatorship should sue Mahfuz.

Stating Amnesty is trying to protect criminals, Joy reminded the people that the human rights organisation did not make any statements against the military dictatorship of 2007-2008 even though politicians and businessmen were arrested and held without any charges.