March 14, 2007

ICE arrests former military officer sought for role in coup and assassination of Bangladesh's president three decades ago

LOS ANGELES - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers yesterday arrested a former major in the Bangladeshi army who is wanted in his home country for his role in a 1975 military-backed coup that resulted in the assassination of Bangladesh's first president, Sheikh Mujib Rahman.

Members of ICE's fugitive operations teams took Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, 60, into custody yesterday morning at his residence in the 3900 block of Inglewood Boulevard in Los Angeles. In 1998, the Bangladesh High Court convicted Ahmed in absentia for his role in the coup and assassination and sentenced him to death.

President Mujib was slain August 15, 1975, along with his wife and several family members. The coup also resulted in the death of a number of the president's trusted aides.

Ahmed, who first entered the United States in 1996 on a visitor's visa, had appealed a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge in 2002. Late last month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied Ahmed's petition to review the case, allowing the earlier removal order to stand.

For two decades following Mujib's assassination, Ahmed represented the Bangladeshi government in a variety of foreign diplomatic posts. In July of 1996, the same month he arrived in the United States, Ahmed was ordered to return to Bangladesh to face criminal charges for his role in the plot. Upon arriving in the United States, Ahmed applied for permission to remain in the country permanently. The Ninth Circuit Court's action last month denied Ahmed's legal appeal.

Editor's note: To obtain a digital photo of Mohiuddin Ahmed contact ICE public affairs at (949) 360-3096.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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