26 eminent personalities condemn case approval against Asif Nazrul

Twenty six eminent personalities of the country yesterday in a press statement condemned the filing of a case against Asif Nazrul under the ICT Act.

Expressing their concern, they urged the Police Headquarters to withdraw the approval of the case as it is based on “false” allegations against the Dhaka University professor of law department.  

They also demanded that the law ministry take immediate steps for bringing necessary amendment to the existing information and communication technology (ICT) Act.

On November 23, a defamation case was filed against Asif Nazrul with a Madaripur court for his alleged Facebook post. Faruk Khan, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan's cousin and also a member of Madaripur Zila Parishad, filed the case claiming that Asif deliberately made the post on Facebook to tarnish the minister's social and political image. 

In their statement, the eminent citizens expressed their grave concern as the police authorities gave approval for filing the case that “falsely” implicated Asif over a post that was uploaded from a “fake Facebook page named after him”. Moreover, Asif on various occasions had denied the allegations vehemently and provided clarifications that were published in various mainstream newspapers. 

In another move on the same date, Minister Shajahan's nephew Syed Asaduzzaman Minar filed a complaint with Madaripur Sadar Police Station against Prof Asif Nazrul under section 57 of the ICT Act over the same Facebook post regarding alleged recruitment irregularities at Chittagong Port.

The Police Headquarters has already given approval for filing the case.

The signatories of the statement include eminent jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik, Prof Shahnaz Huda, Dr Iftekhar Zaman, Prof CR Abrar, Prof Anu Muhammad, Prof Robayat Ferdous, Prof Ahmed Kamal, Prof Parveen Hasan, Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, Prof Tasneem Siddiqui, Barrister Sara Hossain and Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar.