SC upholds bail for Amar Desh editor
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday upheld a High Court order that had granted bail to acting editor of vernacular Daily Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman in a case filed under the ICT Act. The case was filed in 2012 against him under the Information and Communication Technology Act for publishing a report on the Skype conversation between an International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) judge and a Brussels-based lawyer. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha led appeals bench scrapped the States plea against High Courts bail yesterday. Rahmans counsels said that there is no more legal bar left and the Amar Desh acting editor can now be released from jail. There is no legal bar for Mahmudur Rahman to get release from the jail following the apex court order. As far as I know, he had already secured bails in other cases against him, Advocate Md Salehuddin, one of the counsels for Mahmudur Rahman told reporters after the apex court verdict. In response to a bail petition, the HC on January 21 this year granted bail to Mahmudur Rahman in the case. Later, the government filed an appeal with the apex court for staying the operation of the HC order. After a hearing on the appeal, the apex court yesterday upheld the HC order. Mahmudur was arrested on April 11, 2013 on charge of sedition for publishing a Skype conversation between a judge and an external consultant. Since then he remains behind bars. On August 13, 2015, Mahmudur was jailed for three years for failing to submit his wealth statement to the Anti Corruption Commission within the deadline set by the commission while he was behind the bars.
