JAF demands scrapping of ‘dictated’ verdict against Adilur, Elan

Staff Reporter :
Central leaders of the Jaityatabadi Ainjibi Forum (JAF), a platform of the pro-BNP lawyers, on Friday urged the government to scrap the verdict that sentenced Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan to two years imprisonment each in a case filed under the ICT Act.

Ainjibi Forum’s President Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali and Secretary General Barrister Kayser Kamal also sought an immediate release of the two rights activists, said a press release issued on Friday by forum’s Supreme Court unit Secretary Advocate Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal.

A Dhaka Court on September 14 sentenced Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan to two years imprisonment each in a case filed under Section 57 of the ICT Act. 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.

The two accused were sent to jail after the verdict.

Terming the judgment as ‘dictated’, the leaders of the Ainjibi Forum said that the present government is destroying human rights, justice and the rule of law in order to prolong the ongoing undemocratic regime.

According to the press release, “They (the government) have created a frightening environment in Bangladesh by prosecuting and punishing free thinkers and opposition parties’ men.

In continuation of that, the court has given a ‘dictated’ verdict of two years’ imprisonment to Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and its Director ASM Nasiruddin in a case filed under the controversial ICT Act.”

The forum’s leaders also said the government is carrying out various oppressive measures by using the state machinery to create fear among free thinkers, democratic movement activists, journalists, representatives of civil society and human rights activists, with an intention that no one can protest against the illegal and undemocratic rule of the government.