Odhikar’s Adilur, Nasiruddin get 2-year jail in ICT case

Staff Reporter  :
A Dhaka Court on Thursday sentenced two officials of rights body Odhikar to two years imprisonment each in a case filed under Section 57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.

The officials are Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan.

The court also fined each of them Tk 10,000, in default of which, Adilur and Nasiruddin have to serve one month more in jail.

Judge of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal, AM Julfiker Hayet, delivered the verdict in presence of the two accused.

The two accused have been sent to jail after the verdict.

While being taken to the prison van, Adilur Rahman Khan told the reporters, “I did not get justice. I will go to the higher court against this verdict.”

Adilur Rahman’s lawyer Mohammad Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan said that Adilur Rahman and Nasiruddin did not get justice from the trial court. An appeal will be made to the High Court against this verdict.

Public Prosecutor Md Nazrul Islam said that they are not satisfied with the judgement. They would challenge the judgement with the High Court after receiving the certified copy of the verdict, he said.

Meanwhile, some foreign observers came to the court to hear the verdict of the case. Foreign observers include representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

First Secretary of the Australian High Commission in Dhaka Sacha Blumen told the reporters that they had come to the court only to hear the verdict of this case.

When asked if there is any concern about the case or the verdict, he said, “No, we have only come to observe.”

The US Embassy in Dhaka has also expressed its concern over the jail sentence of Adilur Rahman Khan, and Nasiruddin. The Embassy has issued a statement on its website on Thursday.

“The United States Embassy in Dhaka expresses our concern that today’s judgement against Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director A S M Nasiruddin Elan may further undermine the ability of human rights defenders and civil society to play their vital democratic role.

For decades, Odhikar has monitored and reported the human rights situation in Bangladesh, regardless of who was in power.

We continue to support freedom of expression and a vibrant civil society as essential elements of democracy and oppose attempts to limit the exercise of those fundamental and basic rights.”

Rights body Amnesty international also expressed its concerned over the issue.

It said, “The case was filed after Odhikar published a fact-finding report documenting extrajudicial killings conducted by the state in response to a protest in 2013.

The state’s relentless crackdown on Odhikar and its leaders is an assault on the right to speak truth to power.

Documenting human rights violations is not a crime. We urge the Bangladeshi authorities to release Khan and Elan immediately and unconditionally.”

The tribunal concluded its hearing on the case on August 24 this year. On that day, the court fixed September 7 for announcing its verdict. However, the court didn’t deliver its verdict on that day and deferred it to September 14.

The case was filed for running “a distorted report” about the May 5-6, 2013 police action on a Hefazat-e-Islam rally in the capital’s Motijheel.

On June 10, 2013, Detective Branch (DB) of police filed a General Diary with the Gulshan Police Station in this connection, which was later converted into a case.

Detectives arrested Adilur at Gulshan on August 10, 2013 shortly after filing the GD complaining that the rights body on its website ran a false report titled “Assembly of Hefazat-e Islam Bangladesh and Human Rights Violation”.

The High Court granted bail to him on October 9 that year in the case.

The report tarnished the image of the country, its government and the law enforcement agencies, read the GD.

Detectives on August 11, 2013 raided the Odhikar’s Gulshan office and seized three laptops and two desktop computers, which were used to prepare the fake list of 61 dead victims.
After probing the case, the DB on September 4 the same year pressed charges against Adilur and Nasiruddin.

Odhikar’s report claimed that 61 people died in the wee hours of May 6 when the law enforcers flushed several thousand Hefazat activists out of the Shapla Chattar in the capital’s Motijheel.

The government, however, put the number of deaths at 13.

The Cyber Tribunal took into cognizance the charges against Adilur and Nasiruddin on September 12 in 2013.

The tribunal framed charge against them on January 8 in 2014.

Later the High Court stayed the proceedings of the case.

The proceedings of the case resumed on September 5 in 2021 after the HC lifted its stay order.