The assassin next door

• Read this story in Bangla.
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As the sun pierces the horizon to reveal a distant Toronto skyline, a fit-looking man in his 70s emerges on his third-floor condominium balcony. Hes come out to tend an expansive collection of flowers and plants that crowd his terrace, making it difficult to get a clear view of his face.

This low-rise condo building is unremarkable, one of several fanning out across a leafy west Toronto suburb.

So is the man carefully looking after his plants in the early autumn light. He is wearing a blue button-up shirt and jeans fastened neatly with a belt. His greying hair has receded since he was last photographed publicly nearly three decades ago.

His name is Nur Chowdhury and he has been living quietly in Canada for the last 27 years, avoiding a violent past he denies and claims is part of a political vendetta waged against him by a corrupt home country he left decades ago.

Chowdhury is currently the most wanted criminal in Bangladesh. He was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for assassinating the countrys president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975, and helping to plan the massacre of 21 members of the presidents family and household, including his 10-year-old son.

Despite a deportation order issued by Canadas Immigration and Refugee Board in 2006, Canada has been publicly silent on its reasons for allowing him to stay, driving a wedge between the two long-friendly countries.

We need to talk. We need dialogue, a visibly frustrated Khalilur Rahman, the high commissioner of Bangladesh in Canada, said in an interview with The Fifth Estate at his office in Ottawa.

He said Bangladesh has been trying for years to get a meeting with a Canadian minister to discuss the case, without luck.

Canada has done very little to ensure justice to the victims and the families of the victims.

The interview with the high commissioner follows a months-long investigation by The Fifth Estate.

Reviews of hundreds of pages of court documents in Canada and Bangladesh, along with exclusive and rare access to high-level officials in Bangladesh and evidence collected by the police there leave little doubt about who pulled the trigger that killed the man they refer to as the father of the country, the investigation found.

• Watch the full documentary The Assassin Next Door from The Fifth Estate on YouTube. It will also stream on CBC Gem.

The Fifth Estate also visited the official residence of the prime minister of Bangladesh for a one-on-one conversation with Sheikh Hasina, the countrys longest-serving head of government and daughter of the slain president.

I know Canada is always really most vocal for human rights. But how can they keep this heinous killer in their country? she said.

Where are our human rights? This is my question to the Canadian people, the Canadian government.

The Fifth Estate investigation also raises questions about Canadas decades-long silence in this case and its refusal to meet with Bangladesh at a senior level.

Its not justice for [Nur] Chowdhury. Its not justice for Bangladesh and its not justice for the people of Canada to have the case simply hanging in the way it is now, said Rob Currie, a professor of law at Dalhousie University in Halifax and an expert in international criminal law.

There are more legal mechanisms and tools and diplomatic level tools that can be brought to bear, he said.

Where is our justice system?

WATCH | A daughter seeks justice for her fathers killing:

A world away, in the capital of Bangladesh, two men zigzag across a typically chaotic Dhaka street, manoeuvring around a seemingly endless stream of cars, rickshaws and motorcycles, their calls barely audible over the din of horns and traffic.

They are trying to get the attention of a team of journalists they spotted from Canada. They have something they want to say.

We hate Nur Chowdhury, one of them offers, after catching up.

I request to Justin Trudeau. [We want] Nur Chowdhury back in our country and we want justice, added the other.

Like many streets in Dhaka, this one is plastered with posters and gigantic banners reminding people of the assassination of their president and his family nearly five decades ago. And like the men who approached us on the street that day, this is a country that refuses to forget.

Across the city, several layers of security surround the official residence of the prime minister, where soldiers with large machine guns pace nervously at the gates.

Hasina has endured 19 attempts on her life since entering politics. A grenade attack during a public speech in 2004 killed 24 people and injured 500. She survived, although she still suffers from hearing loss from that day.

Barriers made from angle iron and barbed wire encircle the lush grounds of her official home, along with high red brick walls. On the other side is a moat, stocked with tilapia fish, where Hasina likes to relax by casting a rod for her dinner.

With Canada, our relationship is really very good, she told The Fifth Estates Mark Kelley while seated in a vast marble-floored meeting room. On the wall behind her is a large framed portrait of her assassinated father.

Only one little thing pinches.

That one little thing is the case of Nur Chowdhury. When asked if she believes he got away with murder, her welcoming smile evaporates.

Of course I believe that.

Canadas warm relationship with Bangladesh dates to 1971, when following a brutal nine-month war with Pakistan, Hasinas father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Sheikh Mujib, declared independence. Canada was one of the first countries to recognize that claim.

Two years before his assassination, Sheikh Mujib visited Canada for a meeting of the Commonwealth. He was welcomed by the prime minister of the day, Pierre Trudeau.

But Bangladesh was soon plunged into a famine and plagued with political instability.

There were floods, cyclones, famine, corruption and poverty, almost no machinery to deal with them, NBC reported at the time.

The ingredients of Sheikh Mujibs downfall were evident at the beginning.

In an effort to retain control, its been reported Sheikh Mujib nationalized newspapers, banned opposition parties and installed his own personal militia that was accused of eliminating dissenters. Thats when members of the military hatched a plan to assassinate the president.

Research by The Fifth Estate found only one witness alive today who can tell the first-hand story of the bloody attack.

Abdur Rahman Sheikh Rama was 12 years old at the time. He was a helper at the residence and a playmate for the presidents 10-year-old son.

He was sleeping there, and then he heard gunshots, Fouzia Rahman Sheikh, Ramas 17-year-old daughter, translated for him as they gave The Fifth Estate a private tour of the original home where the assassination took place.

Today the home is a museum, the bullet holes and blood smears preserved under plexiglass.

The whole family [was hiding] in the bathroom, added Rama, before they were eventually killed by men with machine guns.

Rama said he followed Sheikh Mujib to the top of the stairwell, where the former president was shot and killed.

Thats how he saw. He basically witnessed it, said Fouzia, while her father wiped tears from his eyes.

Every time he comes here, he gets nervous, she added. He feels suffocated. He feels bad.

WATCH | A tour of the assassination site:

In total, 22 people died that night. Fourteen were members of the presidents family, including his wife, his brother, his pregnant daughter-in-law and his three sons.

The youngest son was 10 years old at the time. According to witnesses, he was shot after begging to see his mother.

Only two members of Sheikh Mujibs immediate family survived the massacre. His daughters happened to be visiting Europe at the time. One of them is Sheikh Hasina.

That day, we were in Belgium, she said.

But then I heard after coming back to Germany, then the ambassador told me. I couldnt say anything to my sister. I just went to hold her. But I couldnt say anything, she added, pausing while an aide brought her tissues.

Just a very difficult time for us.

Following the coup, a new military government gave the killers immunity, and many of them were offered diplomatic postings around the world. Nur Chowdhury had assignments in Brazil and Algeria. Later, he was Bangladeshs ambassador to Iran.

Then, in 1996, while on a diplomatic posting in Hong Kong, he was reported in the news as missing.

His sudden disappearance coincided exactly with Hasinas rise to power as prime minister. The daughter of the man Chowdhury was accused of killing was now in charge.

It was the middle of May in 1975 and a member of the Bangladesh army was picked up in the afternoon by his senior officer and driven to a discreet location in downtown Dhaka.

Along the way, Lt.-Col. Mohiuddin Ahmed says, his senior officer appeared to be testing his political views. What did he think of the presidents decision to ban opposition political parties and newspapers?

As the two men pulled up to a quiet park near an upscale Dhaka hotel, Ahmed said he witnessed two other men arrive on foot. One of them, he said, is the man now living in west Toronto, Nur Chowdhury.

His superior got out to meet them.

They spoke behind a bush for a while, Ahmed would later tell police.

He believed he had just witnessed a secret discussion, making him think some conspiracy was going on.

Ahmeds statement to police is one of several obtained by The Fifth Estate, from witnesses and conspirators who have all since died. His interview is one of about 500 taken by police in an investigation that lasted many months. In the end, 15 men were identified as conspirators, including Chowdhury.

The man who led that investigation, one of Bangladeshs most decorated police officers, has no doubt Chowdury was a key member of the coup.

I am 100 per cent convinced, Abdul Kahar Akond told The Fifth Estate in an interview. I have seen, I have taken the witnesses [statements].

Kahar is now retired. When pressed about Chowdhurys claims of innocence and insistence that he is the target of a corrupt justice system in Bangladesh, Kahar was emphatic.

This is completely false, he said during an interview on his rooftop terrace. Accused persons themselves confessed they are guilty in the report and they named the name of Nur Chowdhury.

The original witness statements obtained by The Fifth Estate paint a detailed picture of what happened leading up to and during that fateful day on Aug. 15, 1975.

That secret discussion attended by Chowdhury and witnessed by Ahmed, he said, was preceded by unrest in the army, over what he described as the presidents increasingly dictator-like decisions.

Then, on the day of the coup, a guard at the presidents residence told police when he arrived early that morning, gunfire started coming immediately, we took the lying position behind the wall.

Another witness, a junior soldier, Dafadar Bashir Ahmed, said he was present when Major Nur [and others] took hip fire position and entered the [presidents] house.

Habildar Md. Quddus Shikder, the guard, followed Chowdhury and the others inside. There, he said, he witnessed the presidents assassination.

Major Nur and [another conspirator] shot [Sheikh Mujib] with the [sub machine] gun that was in their hands. He fell down on the stairs and died.

Finally, Bashir said, Chowhdury told him and others who had gathered outside the house after the incident: I have shot Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Fast forward to 1996, and Chowdhurys sudden disappearance from Hong Kong.

He had recently been recalled from his posting by the new prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. But according to a report in the South China Morning Post, after leaving Hong Kong, he failed to arrive in Dhaka.

Speculation over missing diplomat grows, read the headline in June of that year.

What little is known about Chowdhury can be found in court documents later filed in Canada. According to a 2003 Federal Court decision regarding his fate in Canada, he was a career officer in the Bangladesh military and one of the leaders of the war of independence with Pakistan in 1971.

After the war, he remained very well-connected to the military and political establishment of the country, but he claims he was never directly involved in politics, the document reads.

By 1974, it says, he was forced to resign from the military because of his disagreements with the policies of president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After resigning, he went into business, importing and exporting cigarettes, diesel engines and office equipment.

According to the court document, he was known as an open critic of the former president because the [Sheikh] Mujib regime had become corrupt and tyrannical.

Court documents also describe what happened after his mysterious disappearance from Hong Kong. On July 5, instead of flying home to Bangladesh, he came to Canada, eventually making a refugee claim.

Three months later, Bangladesh filed charges against him and 18 others. Police in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for Chowdhury. Interpol followed with whats called an international Red Notice. Chowdhury was a wanted man.

In 1997, while Chowdhurys refugee claim moved ahead in Canada, the assassination trial began in Bangladesh.

There was no rush to judgment, said Anisul Huq, Bangladeshs current law minister. Im trying to emphasize that they were given all the rights and more to defend themselves.

There is probably no one who knows this case better than Huq. His father was Sheikh Mujibs personal lawyer when he was fighting for an independent Bangladesh before going on to become a prosecutor in the case against the assassins. Huq started out as a junior prosecutor on the case himself, then took over as chief prosecutor when his father died in 2002.

We have incontrovertible evidence to show that he was there on that day, and he was one of the persons who killed Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Huq said in an interview in his office in Dhaka.

Chowdhury was tried in absentia for the murder of the former president and conspiracy to commit murder involving the rest of his family. The Dhaka District and Sessions Court appointed a lawyer to represent him. It took 12 years before all appeals were exhausted and a final verdict was issued in 2009. In the end, Chowdhury and 11 others were sentenced to death for their roles in the coup.

Since arriving in Canada, Chowdury has maintained an incredibly low profile. He has, however, spoken publicly once, to CBC Radios The Current in 2011, when he emphatically denied having any role in the coup.

Im innocent. I have not assassinated the president, he said. Ive been set up. I seek justice and protection from the government of Canada.

As a known critic, he said, the government of Bangladesh is out to get him.

I do not rely on the justice system of Bangladesh. Justice is bought and sold there. All the reports will testify to that.

According to his refugee claim, Chowdury was making T-Shirts for a political rally late into the night on the day the president was assassinated.

In 2002, Canadas Immigration and Refugee Board issued its decision on Chowdhurys claim for refugee status. It didnt buy his story, calling his alibi simply implausible and finding, based on the evidence, that he was in fact one of the conspirators.

It went on to say: There was no evidence that the trial of the applicant was unfair, and in the end determined the principal claimant is nothing more than a fugitive from justice.

After a series of appeals and followup hearings, Canada issued a deportation order in 2006.

So why, 17 years later, is Chowdhury still living free in Canada?

Back in Bangladesh, Aug. 15 is the annual national day of mourning.

This past summer, thousands of Bangladeshis stood corralled behind a barbed wire barrier that snaked its way through downtown Dhaka, eventually funnelling them, chanting with signs and banners hoisted, past a monument honouring their fallen president outside the home where he was assassinated in 1975.

Earlier in the day, his daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, laid a wreath on the monument and tossed rose petals on the graves of her 14 slain family members.

But she is contending with more than just painful memories from her past. Hasina is also battling present-day criticisms about her government.

There have been reports of cracking down on press freedoms, corruption and, recently, the controversial arrest of a senior opposition leader following a massive protest rally in October that ended with three protesters and a police officer killed.

An election is scheduled in January and there is growing international concern about whether it will be free and fair.

Meanwhile, the man convicted of pulling the trigger that killed Hasinas father continues to live free in Canada.

We requested the Canadian government to send him or deport him because hes not a Canadian citizen. He just took shelter [there], Hasina told The Fifth Estate.

Unfortunately, we are not getting any positive response.

Adding fuel to her fire is Canadas refusal to disclose Chowdurys legal status in Canada. After the 2006 decision to deport him, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada conducted an assessment of his safety back home, but the results were never shared with Bangladesh.

In 2018, Bangladesh sued the Canadian government in Federal Court, arguing it needed the results of the safety assessment to further its negotiations with Canada and to inform its legal decision-making.

The court ruled Canada needed to rethink its refusal. Canada did, and then refused again.

The Fifth Estate requested an interview with three government departments and offices: Justice; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; and the Prime Ministers Office.

The government sent a written statement in response.

Due to Canadian privacy laws, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada cannot comment specifically on any case without the consent of those involved, it read. The government of Canada will not comment further at this time.

However, a letter from the government of Canada to the government of Bangladesh sent on Jan. 29, 2021, and obtained by The Fifth Estate provides some insight into Canadas position.

While there may be benefits in disclosing the information [about Chowdhurys status], such as supporting that Canada is not a safe haven for criminals and enhancing diplomatic relations, these benefits must be weighed against Canadas position and Canadas obligations, as affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada, regarding the removal of a person to face the death penalty, the letter reads.

These benefits do not take precedence over Canadas stance regarding the death penalty.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1998.

WATCH | Questions for Nur Chowdhury:

After repeated interview requests through Chowdhurys lawyer, The Fifth Estate finally caught up with him as he was leaving his west Toronto condominium. He was asked if he had been truthful with Canadians about his role in the assassination. Chowdhury drove away without answering the question.

In 2001, when the Supreme Court of Canada banned the deportation of anyone who faces death or torture back home, it did say it could still happen, under exceptional circumstances.

The government of Bangladesh believes assassinating a head of state and helping to plan the murder of 21 others, including a 10-year-old boy, constitutes exceptional circumstances and it wants the case tested at the Supreme Court.

It has been requesting a meeting with a Canadian minister to make that point since 2015, but its high commissioner says Canada has refused. Khalilur Rahman said lower-level meetings held since Chowdhurys conviction have been fruitless.

Nothing was discussed because they dont want to sit, he said.

If your Supreme Court says that: No, he cannot be deported, well accept, he added. And then we can talk about the other options.

Continuing talks, according to international criminal law expert Rob Currie, is the key.

It certainly appears that [this case] has fallen through the cracks, he said.

The legal machinery is in place for there to be a solution. So theres got to be frustration in Bangladesh. Theres frustration in Canadian quarters as well. Wed all like to see a case like this moved along and advanced.

And the inability of the [Canadian] government to do so, or the refusal, we cant tell which, is mysterious.

With files from Lisa Ellenwood

Top image: Interpol, CBC/Amadeo De Palma/CBC | Editing: Janet Davison