Mahmudur Rahman gets bail

A Dhaka court one Monday granted bail to Mahmudur Rahman, former acting editor of daily Amar Desh, in a case lodged over allegedly attempting to abduct and murder ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the US in 2015.

Dhaka metropolitan session judge Mohammad Ash Shams Zaglul Hossain passed the order after holding a hearing on the matter.

"We have appealed against his conviction in the case today. The court accepted the appeal. Allowing a plea filed by the defence, the court later granted Mahmudur Rahman's bail," defence counsel Tanvir Ahammed Al Amin said.

The court of Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Mahabubul Haque on 29 September sent him to jail as he surrendered before the court and pleaded for bail.

"Mahmudur Rahman was sent to jail as this court has no jurisdiction to allow him bail, considering the term of his sentence. The court, however, asked jail authorities to provide him with a division facility," defence counsel Syed Joynul Abedin Mesbah told the news agency that day.

The court of Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Asaduzzaman Nur sentenced five people including veteran journalist Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur Rahman to seven years imprisonment on 17 August, 2023.

The other convicts in the case are Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha (JASAS) vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, an expat businessman living in the US.

Mahmudur was tried in absentia.

Police on 3 August, 2015, filed the case with Paltan Police Station and on 19 February 2018, filed a charge sheet against the five accused in the case.

A total of 12 witnesses including Joy testified in the case on different hearing dates.