by AMY DEMPSEY
The shots that killed the founding father of Bangladesh early one morning in 1975 came blasting out of a Sten submachine-gun held by a man named Nur Chowdhury.
Thirty-five years later, the assassin who pulled the trigger on president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman lives quietly in a modest condo building in Etobicoke.
He has never been punished for his crimes.
Chowdhury was sentenced to death for his role in the military coup that killed the president, his family and others in a massacre that catapulted the country into chaos.
But here in Canada, the death penalty is exactly what is keeping the 61-year-old man safe: Ottawa doesn’t deport people who face execution.
For that reason, Chowdhury remains here in limbo, even though Bangladesh wants him to face justice at home.
His refugee claims have been denied and courts have ordered him removed from the country, but that is not likely to happen anytime soon.
Chowdhury, who has lived in Canada since 1996, was tried in Bangladesh in absentia. He and 11 others were convicted and sentenced to death in April 2001 in a series of trials that Amnesty International declared were fair and unbiased.
Five of Chowdhury’s co-conspirators were hanged in Bangladesh last January after a much-delayed trial and lengthy appeal process.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)