Gay teacher at Dhaka University pleads innocent after arrest on sex harassment charges
LGBTQ rights advocates see students’ complaints as an Islamist conspiracy
Police have arrested professor Ershad Halim of the Department of Chemistry at Dhaka University on allegations of sexually assaulting male students over an extended period.
Ershad proclaimed his innocence in a court hearing, but he was denied bail and was sent to prison.
The LGBTQ rights organization JusticeMakers Bangladesh in Paris (JMBF) declared that Ershad was the victim of an anti-gay conspiracy by pro-Islamist students who made false allegations against him because he belongs to the gay sexual minority community.
The newspaper Prothom Alo reported (in an article that is edited and condensed here):
He was arrested at home around 11 p.m. on Nov. 13. Also that night, a student who claims to have been assaulted, filed a case against Ershad at Mirpur Model police station, accusing him of sexual assault and physical abuse.
Following these developments, police picked him up from his residence later that night.
Abu Nayeem, a student of the Department of Chemistry and vice-president of Fazlul Haque Muslim Hall Students’ Union, said 12 students have described being sexually assaulted by Ershad.
Dhaka University proctor Saifuddin Ahmed said Ershad has been instructed to refrain from all academic activities.
Defense counsel’s remarks: My client is innocent
In court, defense counsel Shyamal Kumar Roy appealed for bail, arguing that his client was innocent.
He also claimed that, as the teacher was due to be considered for the position of department chair in a few months, other teachers had conspired to frame him.
The lawyer also mentioned that professor Halim has a wife and a child studying in Class VIII, questioning why he would engage in such acts.
JMBF decries an Islamist anti-gay conspiracy
JMBF demanded Ershad’s immediate and unconditional release and the withdrawal of the case filed against him
“JMBF firmly believes that provoking a group of pro-Islamist students to make false, baseless, and conspiratorial allegations against a teacher simply because he belongs to the gay sexual minority community, and subsequently arresting and jailing him, constitutes a clear violation of the Constitution of Bangladesh, secularism, civil rights, and the fundamental human rights declared by the United Nations,” the organizatiou stated.
JMBF called for an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation under the direct supervision of international gay rights advocates, to be followed by legal action against the pro-Islamist instigators who were involved.
They also called for “psychosocial support and fair financial compensation” for Ershad.
