B’deshi editor acquitted in top abduction plot case

Dhaka: A court in Bangladesh on Monday acquitted a prominent newspaper editor in a case related to a failed plot to abduct and kill ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the US in 2015.

Dhaka 4th Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Tarique Aziz pronounced the judgment, allowing Mahmudur Rahman’s appeal against his conviction and sentence in the case, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

The judge said the charges brought against the appellant were found to be false and fabricated. So, the judgment sentencing him by the trial court was scrapped and the appellant was acquitted, said the judge in his order. After the judgment, Mahmudur, the editor of the daily Amar Desh, told the journalists that he finally got justice from the court and he would continue his fight against fascism, which was also the country’s struggle, it said.

On August 17 last year, a Dhaka court sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment in his absence. Senior journalist Shafik Rehman, Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha Vice-President Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, and US-based businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan were also sentenced to seven years in prison in absentia in the same case.