The government on Sunday suspended the sentence of journalist and writer Shafik Rehman for one year while a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court sent former Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman to jail in a case filed nine years ago.
Shafik Rehman, a former editor of the Jai Jai Din, and Mahmudur, also a former energy affairs adviser to Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, along with three others were on August 17, 2023 jailed for seven years in absentia in the case, filed for plotting to abduct and kill the deposed prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in 2015.
Shafik Rehman鈥檚 lawyer Sheikh Shakil Ahmed Ripon said that the Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, in accordance with the opinion of the law ministry, issued a notification suspending sentences awarded against Shafik Rehman and expatriate businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan for one year in the case.
The sentence for the case has been stayed for one year under the power bestowed by section 401 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, based on the opinion from the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, provided the accused surrender to the court, the notification said.
The lawyer stated that Shafik Rehman applied to the home ministry on health grounds, seeking to have his sentence cleared.
He argued that Rehman鈥檚 fundamental rights were violated due to political repression during prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 15-year rule, which ended with her removal through a student-led mass movement on August 5.
Mahmudur Rahman on Sunday morning surrendered before the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubul Haque and sought bail.
The court rejected his bail plea and sent him to jail as the magistrate鈥檚 court had no power to grant bail to a convict.
The court, however, accepted a defence petition seeking the court鈥檚 order to direct the prison authorities to provide him with the first class division privileges in accordance with the prison rules.
His lawyer, Syed Zainul Abedin Mejbah, said that the court had jurisdiction to grant bail to any convict, who is jailed for one year in a case. As Mahmudur Rahman was jailed for seven years, the court had no jurisdiction to grant him bail.
鈥楳y client will soon file a bail petition with the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court,鈥� he added.
Mahmudur Rahman returned home on Friday after spending over five and a half years in self-exile in Turkey.
On August 17, 2023, Mahmudur was sentenced in absentia by the court of Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor.
Senior journalist Shafik Rehman and Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangtha leaders Mohammadullah and Rizve Ahmed Sejar, and US-based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan were also sentenced in the case.
According to the case statement, a New York court jailed Rizve for three years in 2015 after finding him guilty of bribing an FBI official to obtain classified information.
An FBI agent linked to Rizve was also sentenced to five years in jail. As per the court document, Rizve handed the information to a Bangladeshi journalist in return for $30,000. The matter was discussed in Bangladesh parliament.
Joy, who lives in the United States with his family, in a Facebook post in March 2015 accused BNP leaders of conspiring to 鈥榓bduct and kill him鈥�.
On August 3, 2015, inspector Fazlur Rahman of the Detective Branch of the police filed the case for plotting to abduct and kill Joy.
The police submitted a charge sheet against the accused people on February 20, 2018, mentioning Shafik and Mahmudur as the masterminds.聽
Mahmudur was arrested on April 11, 2013 at the Amar Desh office in the capital鈥檚 Karwanbazar area in a sedition case.
In 2016, he was shown arrested in the case in connection with plotting to kidnap and kill Joy.
Mahmudur was released on bail in November 2016 and left the country.
Journalist Shafik Rehman was arrested at his Dhaka home in April 2016 in the case over the plot to kidnap Joy. He was remanded and interrogated twice.
After five months in prison, Shafik was released on bail and later moved to the UK. He returned to Bangladesh on August 18, about two weeks after the August 5 fall of the Awami League regime amid a student-led mass uprising.
