Mahmudur Rahman acquitted of Joy’s kidnapping and attempted murder case
Mahmudur Rahman has been acquitted in an appeal filed against the conviction of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in a kidnapping and attempted murder case.
The court of Dhaka’s Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Tariq Ejaz gave the verdict on Monday.
Journalist Mahmudur Rahman appeared in court on the day. The court announced the verdict in his presence.
Mahmudur Rahman’s lawyer Tanvir Ahmed Al-Amin confirmed this information to the media.
Mahmudur Rahman surrendered to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court on September 29 last year and applied for bail on the condition of an appeal. After the hearing, the court rejected the bail application and ordered him to be sent to prison. After serving five days in prison, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court granted him bail on October 3.
It is learned that on August 17 last year, the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor of Dhaka sentenced five people, including former acting editor of Amar Desh newspaper Mahmudur Rahman and journalist Shafiq Rehman, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment under two separate sections in the case of kidnapping and attempt to murder of Sajeeb Wazed Joy. The other three accused convicted are spy leader Mohammad Ullah, Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.
The court sentenced the accused to five years of imprisonment and a fine of five thousand taka under section 365 of the Penal Code (kidnapping). They will have to serve another month in prison in case of non-payment of the fine. In addition, the court sentenced them to two years of imprisonment and another month in prison in case of non-payment of a fine of five thousand taka under section 120-B of the same law. The judge mentioned in the verdict that the sentences of the two sections will run concurrently.
The charges in the case reveal that sometime before September 2011, BNP and other high-level leaders of the BNP and other parties affiliated with the BNP-led alliance, including BNP’s cultural organization JASAS, Mohammad Ullah Mamun, conspired with the JASAS office in Paltan in the capital, New York City, the United Kingdom, and other accused in various parts of Bangladesh to kidnap and kill the former prime minister’s son and his former technology advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy in America. In that incident, DB Police Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed the case with Paltan Model Police Station as the plaintiff on August 3, 2015.
The police filed a chargesheet against these five people in the court on February 19, 2018. Twelve people, including Sajeeb Wazed Joy, testified in the case.
Meanwhile, on September 22 last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification suspending the sentences of journalist Shafiq Rehman and US-based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, who were convicted in the case, for one year. Shafiq Rehman surrendered to the Dhaka court on September 30, the day after Mahmudur Rahman was sent to prison, on the condition of filing an appeal against the sentence in the case. After the hearing, the judge withdrew the arrest warrant issued against him. At the same time, he suspended the sentence warrant.
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