A sedition case was filed against the daily Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman and publisher Alhaj Hasmat Ali for publishing alleged Skype conversation between former chairman of ICT-1 Justice Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin, an expatriate Bangladeshi expert on internationals crimes law.
Advocate Sahidur Rahman, a prosecutor of the prosecution team to deal with the war crimes cases with International Crimes Tribunals, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka in the evening.
After initial hearing, magistrate Hasibul Haque directed the officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station to register the case as first information report (FIR) and to take legal action against the accused
As per provision of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), police may arrest the accused editor and publisher of the newspaper without any arrest warrant.
The complainant said in his case statement that the two accused violated Information Technology Act and damaged the image of the judiciary and the state (Bangladesh).
The complainant said this action of accused is seditious act.
Earlier in the day, the High Court issued a rule upon the government to explain in two weeks why it should not be directed to arrest and prosecute Mahmudur for publishing the recent Skype conversation of Justice Nizamul.
The HC came up with the rule two days after International Crimes Tribunal-1 Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq stepped down following a report published in the daily over Skype conversation with Ahmed Ziauddin.
In response to a petition, HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Farid Ahmed directed the authorities concerned to stop publishing reports on the information received illegally until January 7 in the newspaper.
The HC bench also ordered the district magistrate to hold an enquiry into the publication of the conversation and submit a report to it by January 7.
Advocate Azher Ullah Bhuiyan, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the petition as a public interest litigation.
The petition also sought HC directive on the government to bring criminal proceedings against the people who are involved in hacking the Skype conversation and publishing the report.
Source: The Daily Star
