Avijit murder accused Farabi acquitted in ICT case

A tribunal in Dhaka today acquitted Shafiur Rahman Farabi, who had issued repeated death threats to writer-blogger Avijit Roy before his death, in a case filed under the ICT case.

Judge Ash Sams Joglul Hossain of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal passed the acquittal in presence of Farabi, also an accused in the Avijit murder case, saying that the prosecution failed to prove the charge against him.

But Farabi could not walk out of jail as he is now accused in a dozen of criminal cases filed with different police stations across the country.

Earlier, the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the tribunal recorded statements of seven prosecution witnesses including complainant of the case.      

A team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested the 29-year-old on March 2 of 2015 in Dhaka’s Jatrabari Bus Terminal area for issuing threats to several personalities for their writings.

Later, DB Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed a case with Ramna Police Station against under ICT act in this connection on March 14, 2015.

Detectives pressed charges against Farabi on November 30 of 2015 and the tribunal framed charge against him on April 2016.

Earlier, he was detained for vandalism on Chittagong University campus in 2010.

He was arrested again in 2013 for issuing death threat to the imam who conducted namaz-e-janaza of Rajib Haider, a blogger chopped to death in Mirpur on February 15 the same year.

But he came out on bail after about six months and started to incite killing of free-thinking bloggers.

Farabi again came to the fore after Avijit was hacked to death on February 26 of 2015 and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya seriously injured on Dhaka University campus.