Extremist blogger Farabi sentenced to seven years in jail

Safiur Rahman Farabi, an extremist blogger who was handed life term over the murder of science writer and blogger Avijit Roy, has been found guilty of charges pressed under the ICT Act and sentenced to seven years in jail.

Judge AM Zulfikar Hayat of Dhaka’s Cyber Tribunal also fined Farabi Tk 20,000 on Monday, Public Prosecutor Nazrul Islam Shamim said. The convict will have to serve six more months in prison if he fails to pay the fines, reports bdnews24.com.

Farabi was brought to the court for the delivery of the verdict in the case filed in 2014 for provocative social media posts on religion, state and bloggers.

Police pressed formal charges against him in 2015 and the tribunal framed the charges. Six witnesses testified in the trial.

An anti-terrorism tribunal sentenced Farabi to life in prison in 2021 for instigating the murder of Avijit. Five Islamist militants were sentenced to death in the case.