Boy jailed for FB comment about MP

A mobile court in Tangail has sentenced a schoolboy to two years' imprisonment under the ICT act on the charge of “threatening” a ruling Awami League lawmaker via Facebook messenger.

Executive Magistrate Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, also the upazila nirbahi officer of Sakhipur, passed the order on Saturday, a day after police detained the boy following the filing of a general diary by Anupam Shajahan Joy, lawmaker of Tangail-8 (Basail-Sakhipur) constituency.

Sabbir Shikder, a student of Protima Bonki Public High School in the upazila, was sent to Tangail district jail yesterday.

Magistrate Rafiqul claimed the boy was 19 years old.

He also claimed that ninth-grader Sabbir wrote “abusive and humiliating words” in his message to the lawmaker's personal Facebook ID on Friday.

Prof Mizanur Rahman, former National Human Rights Commission chairman, said law enforcers could have followed proper procedure and investigated further instead of producing Sabbir before a mobile court.

“Executive power has been misused here,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.

Mohammad Maksudul Alam, officer-in-charge of Sakhipur Police Station, said the lawmaker filed a GD with the police station in this regard on Friday.

A line of the post reads: “Your time is going to end”, the OC said, referring to the GD.

Police picked up Sabbir and quizzed him. As he admitted sending the text, police produced him before the mobile court of Rafiqul Islam Saturday night, claimed the OC.

Rafiqul passed the order on the same night against Sabbir, son of Shahinoor Alam of Protima Bonki village.

The executive magistrate said the schoolboy was sentenced under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act. He, however, could not mention the section of the act.