B’desh pro-oppn editor released from jail

A 63-year-old prominent Bangladeshi pro-opposition newspaper editor was on Wednesday released from jail after spending over three years behind bars on charges of sedition and inciting communal tension. Mahmudur Rahman was released from Kashimpur Jail on bail, officials said.

Rahman was implicated in over 70 lawsuits, including one filed over plots to abduct and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, local media reports said.

A former energy advisor and pro-BNP journalist, Rahman has been behind bars since April 11, 2013. The Supreme Court upheld his bail in the case on plot to kill Joy and paved way for his release.

Rahman was the editor of mass circulated Bengali daily Amar Desh, which was shut down. Rahman’s release came two months after another prominent pro-opposition magazine editor Shafik Rehman was also freed from jail.