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On Thursday, Bangladesh’s High Court division of the Supreme Court dismissed the case against photojournalist and social activist Dr. Shahidul Alam filed in 2018 under the now-repealed Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act. The High Court bench, comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Tamanna Rahman Khalidi, quashed the case, following the 2024 High Court judgment asking the State to justify why the case should not be quashed.
Section 57 of the Act penalised any published material that is considered “fake or obscene” or which can deprave and corrupt people who read, see, or hear i,t or deteriorate law and order and prejudice the image of the state. Its second clause provides for punishment of imprisonment up to 10 years.
Dr. Alam was charged for comments he made during an interview with Al-Jazeera and on Facebook about the 2018 student protests for road safety and excessive force used by authorities. He was accused of spreading “provocative false statements” that allegedly incited violence amongst the public. According to section 57, Dr. Alam was also accused of harming the state and of portraying the government as ineffective. At the time, conviction under Section 57 could potentially sentence a person to 14 years.
The arrest was condemned after plainclothes officers allegedly arrested Dr. Alam at his home in Dhaka, blindfolded him, and confiscated the CCTV footage before detaining him. He was in remand for six days, and subsequently spent three months in jail.
In October 2018, the Digital Security Act (DSA) repealed several laws, including Section 57 of the ICT Act, with the caveat that cases initiated before or taken cognisance of by the Cyber tribunal, or were at any stage of the trial. On this basis, Dr. Alam filed a writ petition challenging the continuation of the case against him. In March 2019, the court issued an interim order, and the government appealed the decision. However, the court did not hear the case for nearly two years, and after this, the petition was dismissed on technical grounds.
Dr. Shahidul Alam, a human rights activist who has chronicled the country’s political upheaval for thirty years, upon being denied bail, was declared an international ‘Prisoner of Conscience‘. He also alleged that he suffered torture during police custody. After the arrest, he moved for bail and was granted the same 102 days after his arrest.
Section 57 of the ICT Act had been criticised for curbing the exercise of freedom of speech and expression. till its repeal in 2024. Several groups called for dropping cases filed under these repealed provisions, along with several other repealed laws. DSA too had been criticised for Currently, the DSA has been replaced by the Cyber Security Act (CSA). While DSA, which replaced the ICT Act, has been criticised for contravening the constitution, international human rights, and the rule of law, CSA is an equally repressive law that resurrects Section 57 of the ICT Act and similar laws. At every transitional stage between laws, the cases under the repealed laws continued.
The post Bangladesh court dismisses activist’s seven-year-long case under repealed law appeared first on JURIST - News.
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Section 57 of the Act penalised any published material that is considered “fake or obscene” or which can deprave and corrupt people who read, see, or hear i,t or deteriorate law and order and prejudice the image of the state. Its second clause provides for punishment of imprisonment up to 10 years.
Dr. Alam was charged for comments he made during an interview with Al-Jazeera and on Facebook about the 2018 student protests for road safety and excessive force used by authorities. He was accused of spreading “provocative false statements” that allegedly incited violence amongst the public. According to section 57, Dr. Alam was also accused of harming the state and of portraying the government as ineffective. At the time, conviction under Section 57 could potentially sentence a person to 14 years.
The arrest was condemned after plainclothes officers allegedly arrested Dr. Alam at his home in Dhaka, blindfolded him, and confiscated the CCTV footage before detaining him. He was in remand for six days, and subsequently spent three months in jail.
In October 2018, the Digital Security Act (DSA) repealed several laws, including Section 57 of the ICT Act, with the caveat that cases initiated before or taken cognisance of by the Cyber tribunal, or were at any stage of the trial. On this basis, Dr. Alam filed a writ petition challenging the continuation of the case against him. In March 2019, the court issued an interim order, and the government appealed the decision. However, the court did not hear the case for nearly two years, and after this, the petition was dismissed on technical grounds.
Dr. Shahidul Alam, a human rights activist who has chronicled the country’s political upheaval for thirty years, upon being denied bail, was declared an international ‘Prisoner of Conscience‘. He also alleged that he suffered torture during police custody. After the arrest, he moved for bail and was granted the same 102 days after his arrest.
Section 57 of the ICT Act had been criticised for curbing the exercise of freedom of speech and expression. till its repeal in 2024. Several groups called for dropping cases filed under these repealed provisions, along with several other repealed laws. DSA too had been criticised for Currently, the DSA has been replaced by the Cyber Security Act (CSA). While DSA, which replaced the ICT Act, has been criticised for contravening the constitution, international human rights, and the rule of law, CSA is an equally repressive law that resurrects Section 57 of the ICT Act and similar laws. At every transitional stage between laws, the cases under the repealed laws continued.
Several rights groups have hailed this decision to quash the case. Amnesty International’s South Asia Research Director, Isabelle Lassee, called this outcome “long overdue” and has renewed the organization’s calls to drop the other cases filed under Section 57 before its repeal.
The post Bangladesh court dismisses activist’s seven-year-long case under repealed law appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.