Table of Contents – Foreign – The Bangladesh Army did business with a fictitious Hungarian company



[ad_1]

Al Jazeera revealed this week that even in 2018, the Bangladeshi military purchased Israeli-made devices to identify International Mobile Phone Subscribers (IMSIs) that could simultaneously monitor hundreds of participants in opposition groups or demonstrations.

The purchase contract acquired by the news channel states that the manufacturer is PicSix Hungary, but this company does not exist in the Hungarian companies database.

Since Bangladesh does not have diplomatic or commercial relations with Israel, citing the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, Al Jazeera said the contract deliberately concealed the fact that the PicSix manufacturer was an Israeli company. To hide the true nature of the transaction, front companies also participated. The contract, by the way, was signed one day after Aziz Ahmed was appointed commander of the army.

The investigation also reveals that PicSix was created by former Israeli intelligence officers and the company sent two experts to Hungary to train Bangladeshi military intelligence officers to handle the technology.

According to a source in Al Jazeera, Israeli experts illegally intercepted calls in Hungary to demonstrate the effectiveness of the equipment to Bangladeshi trading partners.

The Bangladeshi military leadership responded to Al Jazeera’s information that it had no basis in reality and released it with the intent to expire, confirming in a statement that the assets were manufactured in Hungary rather than in Israel and purchased by an army of Bangladesh dependent on a UN peacekeeping. mission. However, the UN flatly denies this and also confirmed on the subject of the Index that it has asked the competent authorities to investigate a suspected case of corruption.

On Saturday, seven major international defense organizations issued statements calling on the UN to launch an investigation into Al Jazeera’s own reporting and not allow the Bangladesh military to use the peacekeeping mission to cover up serious rights abuses. humans.

The Hungarian connection

Direkt36 revealed on Monday the relationship of the Bangladeshi army leader and his family with the main political and criminal circles, the writing reveals that Aziz Ahmed visited Hungary in 2014 in person to prepare for his brother’s move here. Haris Ahmed arrived a few months later under the pseudonym Mohammad Hasan. The false identity was necessary because, as the portal writes:

Haris is actually a dangerous criminal and a member of an extremely influential family. He is still on the list of the most wanted criminals in Bangladesh.

The brief also reveals that Haris’s stay in Hungary was also assisted by the former honorary consul of Bangladesh, Ambrus Nyerges, although there is no information on whether the consul knew the true identity of Haris, who used his pseudonym. Haris finally moved to Budapest in 2015 with a residence permit issued under his pseudonym, where he bought real estate and also founded companies. According to Al Jazeera

However, Haris’ main source of income does not come from his companies, but mainly from ministerial work and at other levels of government.

When asked by investigators about this, the State Department responded that it has no contractual relationship with Haris Ahmed or his companies. The Defense Department also wrote that it had never been in contact with Haris Ahmed, had no knowledge of the agreements and had not been involved in them.



[ad_2]