International human rights lawyer William Sloan could not hold a pre-scheduled press conference Friday as security personnel prevented journalists from entering the venue.
Sloan, the American lawyer, was to speak about his findings of Bangladesh’s rights situation under emergency rules at the press conference scheduled for 4:30 pm at Chitra hall of the Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka. Police and members of other security agencies stood guard at all entrances of the hotel and allowed all but the journalists inside.
The hotel’s security staff displayed an unsigned notice, reading ‘press conference has been cancelled for unavoidable reason.’ No official reason was cited for the cancellation and hotel officials would not say anything about it. But a senior lawyer claimed that the hotel authorities were forced to cancel the booking of the hall. ‘We know nothing whether the conference was postponed or not. Please don’t ask me about it,’ one of the hotel staff told the waiting reporters.
