Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman sent to jail

A Dhaka court on Sunday ordered Mahmudur Rahman, editor of daily Amar Desh, to be sent to jail after he surrendered in a case related to the abduction and attempted murder of Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mahbubul Haque passed the order after rejecting Rahman’s bail plea, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer Syed Joynul Abedin.

Mahmudur Rahman appeared in court around 10:50 am, surrendering through his lawyers with a request for bail.

However, after hearing arguments from both sides, the court denied the bail and sent him to jail.

Earlier, on September 17, 2023, Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor had sentenced Mahmudur Rahman to seven years in prison in the same case. Veteran journalist Shafik Rehman and three others were also sentenced to the same penalty.

Mahmudur Rahman returned to Bangladesh on Friday morning, following over five and a half years in self-imposed exile.

Rahman has long been a critic of the then Awami League government, facing over 124 cases. Both he and his wife were sentenced to seven years in prison in one of those cases. Rahman was arrested in June 2010 and again in April 2013, during which the government shut down Amar Desh.