Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, who was handed death penalty for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, is suing UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for £60,000 in libel damages.
According to a report of Daily Mail, Mueen alleges that he was defamed in a report of Uk Home Office last year.
The lawsuit says the Challenging Hateful Extremism document by the Commission for Countering Extremism was shared on the Home Office’s Twitter account, which has almost one million followers and retweeted by Ms Patel and others – including BBC journalist Mishal Husain and the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, says the report.
Mueen alleges the Home Office report libelled him by stating that he was responsible for serious criminal violence, including crimes against humanity, during the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971.
However, he was sentenced to death after Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2013 found him guilty in absentia of abducting, torturing and murdering nine Dhaka University (DU) teachers, six journalists and three doctors during the war.
He fled Bangladesh after the war and gained British citizenship, claims the report’s publication caused him severe distress and embarrassment which was aggravated by the Commission’s failure to contact him before publishing the allegations.
“This relates to claims made within a report published by the Independent Commission for Countering Extremism,” a Home Office spokesman said.
