The French government, human rights organisations and social media users worldwide have spent the past two weeks calling on the Bangladeshi government to release Moussa Tchantchiung, who was arrested on December 22.
Tchantchiung is a French citizen and a member of the French NGO Barakacity, a human rights organisation providing humanitarian services to needy communities in 22 countries. He was arrested by the BGB, an elite Bangladeshi police unit while on his way to visit Rohingya refugee camps in the country. The Bangladeshi government has since accused him, among other charges, of having ties to "terrorism".
The #FreeMoussa campaign, which has been trending on Twitter, was started in reaction to his arrest, while online petitions have called on the Bangladeshi government to release him. Celebrities and intellectuals have been publicly drawing attention to the case.
Barakacity insists that Tchantchiung had merely travelled to Bangladesh to provide humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya population, which has been living in camps in the south of the country that the Bangladeshi government considers illegal.
The Rohingya established the makeshift camps, 50km from the border with Myanmar, in an area surrounded by Bangladeshi military checkpoints that allegedly prevent them from moving further into the country to seek refuge. (Courtesy of Aljazeera English)
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