2016 cafe attack: Bangladesh acquits British citizen detained without charge

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.

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 daughter’s 13th birthday party.

“We are happy that the court accepted the charge sheet and dropped him,” Karim’s lawyer, Sanwar Hossain Somazder, said.

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 daughter’s 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.