The Malaysian High Court has granted an interim order against the immigration department from deporting former Bangladesh ambassador Mohamed Khairuzzaman to Dhaka.
Judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan passed the order Tuesday during case management of Khairuzzaman’s habeas corpus application, reports online portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
Khairuzzaman, 65, is wanted in Bangladesh for undisclosed reasons, but his wife, Rieta Rahman, contended that his arrest was politically motivated by the Bangladesh government.
On February 10, the immigration authorities picked up the former diplomat from his residence in Ampang.
His legal team said Khairuzzaman was a political asylum seeker with a UNHCR card and did not commit any immigration violations, and hence his detention was unlawful.
In granting Khairuzzaman’s application for a stay, Judge Zaini Mazlan said, “I don’t want to hear that he has been deported against this court order that I have granted.”
Earlier, lawyer Edmund Bon of the former ambassador brought up the issue of immigration officers deporting Myanmar detainees last year, despite a court order barring the government from doing so.
“I hope the immigration (department) doesn’t take matters into their own hands,” he said.
Federal counsel for the immigration department Wong Siew Mun said he would get back to the Attorney General’s Chambers on the interim stay.
The High Court set May 20 to hear Khairuzzaman’s habeas corpus bid.
In an immediate response, Rieta Rahman told FMT that she was thankful for the court’s decision, and hoped the whereabouts of her husband would be made known.
Earlier on Monday, Bangladesh State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam told the media that they were hopeful of Khairuzzaman’s extradition.
Khairuzzaman, a retired army major, was accused of the 1975 jail killing and later acquitted before being appointed as Bangladesh's high commissioner to Malaysia in 2007 during the caretaker government.
On February 10, Malaysian Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said he was aware of the arrest. "The arrest was made according to procedures," The Star, a Malaysian daily, quoted him in its online version as saying.
After the Awami League-led government came to power in 2009, he was recalled to Dhaka.
But Khairuzzaman did not return and obtained the UN refugee card in Kuala Lumpur and continued to stay back there, according to The Star.
