SC stays Sangram editor’s bail

The  Supreme Court yesterday stayed for eight weeks a High Court order that  granted  bail to Abul Asad, editor of Bangla daily Sangram, in a case  filed under Digital Security Act on charges of "circulating provocative  report and sedition".

Chamber  judge of the SC's Appellate Division Justice Md Nuruzzaman passed  the order following a petition moved by additional attorney general and acting attorney general Murad Reza, seeking stay on the HC  bail order.

Asad cannot get released from jail following the SC stay order, Murad Reza told The Daily Star.

On  September 23, the HC granted ad-interim bail to Asad, editor of  Bangla daily Sangram, for one year. The HC bench of Justice Md Emdadul Huq and Justice Md Akram Hossain Chowdhury granted the bail.

Asad's lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir told The Daily Star that his client is now in Kashimpur jail. A Dhaka court sent him to jail on December 14.

Afzal  Hossain, a freedom fighter, filed the case with Hatirjheel Police  Station. Police detained Asad on December 13 last year after mob  vandalised the daily's office, over publishing a report that termed  Quader Mollah, a "martyr".

Mollah,  former assistant secretary general of Jamaat and known infamously as  "The butcher of Mirpur" during the Liberation War, was hanged in 2013  after being convicted in a case by the SC for committing crimes against humanity  during the war on September 17 that year.