DHAKA (Reuters) – A Bangladesh court on Wednesday acquitted a British man detained without charge for two years on suspicion of involvement in a 2016 attack on a cafe in Dhaka that killed 22 people, his lawyer said.
FILE PHOTO: Policemen sneak a look inside the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant as others inspect the site after gunmen attacked, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 3, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Rights group Amnesty International had campaigned for the release of Hasnat Karim, who was in the cafe at the time of the attack for his daughters 13th birthday party.
“We are happy that the court accepted the charge sheet and dropped him,” Karims lawyer, Sanwar Hossain Somazder, told Reuters. Karim is due to be released from jail later in the day.
Somazder said Karim would not be seeking compensation.
Karim was with his family celebrating his daughters birthday when militants attacked, taking 22 hostages, mostly foreigners, who were killed over 12 hours.
Karim became a suspect after he agreed to act as a human shield, witnesses said at the time. An investigation later cleared him of involvement.
Reporting by Serajul Quadir; Editing by Malini Menon and Nick Macfie
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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