Supreme Court grants Shafik Rehman bail for three months

The Supreme Court has granted journalist Shafik Rehman conditional bail for three months in a case over an alleged plot to ‘kidnap and kill’ Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. He has been asked to hand over his passport, Rehman’s lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali told bdnews24.com on Wednesday Once he submits his passport, he will be able to stay out of jail until police submit the chargesheet in the case. A five-strong Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Wednesday granted Rehman’s appeal against a High Court decision scrapping his bail petition. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state during the hearing. A junior lawyer for Rehman also said that there was no more legal hurdle for his release as there was no other case against him. In May last year, police had started the case, in which Rehman was accused. The case followed the conviction of an expatriate BNP leader`s son, along with two other Americans, in the US for bribing a former FBI agent to get confidential information on Joy with the intent to ‘scare,’ ‘kidnap’ and ‘hurt’ him. Shafik Rehman was arrested in this case on Apr 16 this year from his home in Dhaka. Police later said the former Daily Jaijaidin editor had admitted to holding several meetings with those convicted by the US court and handed over ‘confidential FBI documents`, related to the plot to abduct Joy. Joy advises his mother Hasina on information and communication technology issues. But Rehman’s wife Taleya Rehman claimed that her husband had collected those documents as an ‘investigative journalist’ to write a report. On Jun 7, a High Court bench had scrapped Rehman`s petition after he was denied bail by the trial court. The top court on Jul 17 cleared him to file an appeal against the High Court order. –bdnews24.com