Imtiaz, Henry get interim bail
Supreme Court lawyer Imtiaz Mahmood and poet Henry Swapan were granted ad-interim bails in two cases yesterday.
A day after his arrest and detention in jail, Imtiaz got ad-interim bail in a case filed under the now-annulled section 57 of the ICT Act about two years ago over his Facebook posts.
Judge Ash Sams Joglul Hossain of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal passed the order after Imtiaz’s lawyer Asaduzzaman Rachi submitted a petition seeking his bail.
Police picked him up from his home in the capital’s Banani area on Wednesday morning in response to a warrant issued by a Khagrachhari court on January 21.
The same day, a metropolitan magistrate rejected Imtiaz’s bail and sent him to jail.
In July 2017, one Shafiqul Islam filed the case against Imtiaz with Khagrachhari Sadar Police Station on charges of hurting his sentiments and inciting communal violence in the Chattogram Hill Tracts region.
Following the case, Imtiaz obatained bail from the High Court until submission of the probe report.
In the case statement, Shafiqul accused Imtiaz of making several posts on Facebook from July 1-10 in 2017 regarding some false incidents in the CHT region.
The plaintiff alleged that Imtiaz had tried to instigate communal violence in the CHT through those posts, police said.
Meanwhile in Barishal, a court granted ad-interim bail to poet and journalist Henry Swapan in a case filed under Digital Security Act.
The court passed the order after his lawyer Syed Obiadullah Saju submitted a petition seeking bail in the case.
Talking to reporters, Barishal city Mayor Serniabat Sadik Abdullah said they were trying to settle the matter and expressed hope that they would be successful.
Lawrence Lecavallier Gomes, father of a Catholic church, filed the case with Kotwali Model Police Station on May 13 against Henry on charges of hurting religious sentiments. Police arrested him from his home on the same day.
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