A metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on Monday withdrew its conviction warrant issued for sending journalist Shafik Rehman to jail to 7-year sentence on charge of conspiracy to abduct and kill deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.
Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Md Mahbubul Haque passed the order allowing Shafik Rehman鈥檚 plea to recall the court鈥檚 earlier order issuing the conviction warrant against him.
Shafik Rehman, the founding editor of the Jai Jai Din, surrendered before the court in the morning.
The journalist surrendered before the court a week after the government鈥檚 conditional suspension of the sentence for a year.
According to the conditions Shafik Rehman would have to surrender before the trial court and file an appeal against the sentence.
Home ministry鈥檚 Security Service Division issued a notification in this regard on September 22.
Shafik Rehman鈥檚 lawyer Syed Md Zainul Abedin Mejbah said that his client filed two petitions 鈥� one informing the court about the suspension of his sentence and the other seeking a recall of his conviction warrant. 鈥楾he court accepted the pleas,鈥� he said.
鈥楳y client will appeal against the verdict at an appropriate time after getting a copy of the judgement,鈥� he said.
Shafik Rehman at the court premises told reporters that the police had filed the false case against him and others only to harass them.
The Daily Amar Desh鈥檚 former acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, who returned home on Friday after spending over five and a half years in self-exile in Turkey, surrendered before the same court on Sunday. The court sent him to jail.
Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur, also a former energy affairs adviser to Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, along with three others, were jailed on August 17, 2023, by a Dhaka magistrate court for seven years in absentia in the case filed with Paltan police station on August 3, 2015.
Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangtha leaders Mohammadullah and Rizve Ahmed Sejar and US-based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan were also sentenced in the case.
Shafik Rehman was arrested at his Dhaka home in April 2016 in the case over the plot to kidnap Joy. After five months in prison, Shafik was released on bail and later moved to the UK.
He returned to Bangladesh on August 18, after the fall of the Awami League regime amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5.