After BNP was returned to power in 2001, the party sought revenge for Alamgir's role in causing it to lose power in 1996. The government arrested Alamgir in 2002, detaining him without charges. He was tortured while in police custody. According to the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the groups that fought for his release, Alamgir later reported in court that Every evening at midnight, the police would enter his cell and blindfold him. He was taken to a separate room where masked men interrogated and tortured him. They beat him with lathi (bamboo sticks) and glass bottles filled with water. He reported that he was beaten severely on his buttocks, feet and other muscular parts of his body, and was sodomized with the bottle. In addition, he was denied freshwater and his
diabetes medicine. He reported that the police demanded that he sign a typed document. When he refused to sign, they continued to beat him. A widespread international campaign pressured the government to stop the torture and to release Alamgir. Prominent politicians, such as United States Senator
Edward Kennedy, United States Representative
Frank Pallone, Jr., and others urged the government to release him. Professional and human rights organisations also pushed for his release, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Amnesty International,
Asian Human Rights Commission,
Committee of Concerned Scientists,
New York Academy of Sciences,
Organisation mondiale contre la torture (World Organisation Against Torture), 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Winners Physicians for Human Rights,
Scholars at Risk, and
South Asia Forum for Human Rights. Thousands of individuals from around the world wrote letters to the government about his case. The High Court disputed the government's rationale for the former minister's detention without charge; in an unprecedented step, the Court issued an ultimatum to the government, demanding that it release Alamgir or risk having the High Court free him by force. The government released Alamgir on 18 September 2002, an hour before expiration of the court-ordered deadline. In December 2002 the BNP government filed a sedition case against Alamgir for his role in a widespread protest in 1996 against the elections of the previous year.
Re-imprisonment and release On 4 February 2007, Alamgir was arrested from his home by civil and military police; the government had called a state of emergency in Bangladesh. Eventually the government charged him with corruption based on a wealth statement that he was forced to write while in jail and without access to lawyers or any documents. During the trial in July 2007, seven prominent persons, including well-known economists of Bangladesh and the United States, testified to his honesty. The summary tribunal set up by the military-led caretaker government convicted him of graft and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment. All in all, the government filed six cases against Alamgir between February 2007 and October 2008. On 21 October 2008, Alamgir was released on bail after being held in prison for 20 months by the military-backed caretaker government. In December 2008, the Awami League coalition won two-thirds of the seats in Parliament; Alamgir was among those elected while he was still on bail. As a result of an appeal, on 13 July 2009, the High Court overturned Alamgir's conviction and sentence. == Controversy ==