Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman gets six-week anticipatory bail

The High Court on Sunday granted a six-week anticipatory bail to Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman in a case filed under Digital Security Act.

The High Court bench of justices Mustafa Zaman Islam and Md Aminul Islam passed the order.

Prior to this, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman sought an anticipatory bail in the case filed with Ramna police station.

The High Court then granted a six-week anticipatory bail in the case.

Lawyers Fida M Kamal, Imtiaz Mahmood and Prashanta Karmaker stood for Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman while additional attorney generals Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury, and Sudip Chatterjee represented the state.

Earlier, a case was filed against Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman with Ramna police station under Digital Security Act in the dead of night on 29 March.

Prothom Alo staff correspondent in Savar Samsuzzaman, an ‘assistant cameraman’ and unidentified people were also made accused in the case.

High Court lawyer Abdul Maleque, also the executive president of Bangabandhu Foundation, filed the case as plaintiff.

Samsuzzaman works as a staff correspondent at Prothom Alo. He works in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka. Several plainclothesmen identifying themselves as members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) picked up Samsuzzaman, from his house in Savar near Jahangirnagar University early on 29 March .

Around two hours prior to Samsuzzaman's arrest, the first case under the Digital Security Act was filed against him with the Tejgaon police station in the capital. The plaintiff in this case, Syed Mohammad Golam Kibria, is the general secretary of Jubo League unit's ward no. 11 of Dhaka North City Corporation.

Although the arrest of Samsuzzaman came to light on 29 March, he was produced in the court about 30 hours later, on 30 March. The court sent him to prison in another case lodged under the Digital Security Act with Ramna police station. The second case was filed late on 29 March night, some 19 hours after Samsuzzaman was picked up by plainclothes policemen from his Savar house.

A report of Prothom Alo staff correspondent Samsuzzaman regarding the price hike of daily essentials has drawn much discussion lately. While publishing that report on social media Facebook, a ‘card’ with a quote from day-labourer Zakir Hossain was attached to the post. Although Zakir Hossain was given the attribution, a photo of a child was used in the card mistakenly.

Within 17 minutes of publishing the Facebook post, the inconsistency was noticed and it was removed promptly. At the same time, the report was corrected and was republished with a disclaimer regarding the correction. The report never said that the quote was of that child in the photo. Rather, it was clear in the report that it was a quote from day-labourer Zakir Hossain. Samsuzzaman was the reporter of that news.

Several ministers and leaders of the ruling party have been criticising Prothom Alo over that Facebook post on 26 March. Besides, the party leaders and activists at different levels are staging demonstrations in protest.

Prothom Alo staff correspondent Samsuzzaman was shown arrested in the case filed with the Ramna police station.