Rozina In Jail: ‘Leaked video delays bail’

The state asked for more time, and time is what it got yesterday as Metropolitan Magistrate Md Baki Billah postponed deciding on journalist Rozina Islam's bail until next Sunday.

Prosecutors will use the extra time to submit to the court a video that mysteriously surfaced on social media the night before Prothom Alo Senior Reporter Rozina's bail hearing.

The video, taken by someone in the room in the Secretariat where the altercation between Rozina and the ministry officials took place, was leaked to social media on Wednesday night.

"We had requested the court to delay giving a decision regarding Rozina's bail petition until next week and we will take this time to submit the video to the court as evidence," said Assistant Public Prosecutor Hemayet Uddin Khan Heron. He added that he will be submitting other evidence.

The seven-minute video shows ministry officials and on-duty police interrogating and manhandling the journalist while she describes how she came to be in the particular personal secretary's room through a source.

At one point during the interrogation, she said, "I made a mistake and I would be willing to give a written undertaking."

However, this video only shows seven minutes of Rozina's five-hour ordeal inside the ministry and it is this specific clip that was released by "unknown social media users" yesterday.

This video became the hinge on which Rozina's fate swung yesterday as the prosecutors insisted that the video proved that Rozina is guilty of the charges against her, while the Rozina's lawyers argued that nothing Rozina said under duress without a magistrate present could be used as evidence.

Rozina's lawyers are Ehsanul Haque Shomaji, Ashraful Alam, Aminul Gani Titu, Prashanta Karmakar, Abdur Rashid and Jyotirmoy Barua.

They pointed out that the video cannot be taken into cognisance by the court because the case rests solely on the first information report filed by the police, which does not mention the video at all.

"A personal statement made by her cannot be taken into consideration legally," said Shomaji.

In response, the prosecutors requested the court to grant them a week to submit the video as evidence for perusal by the court.

The hearing, which took place virtually, began at 12:50pm and went on for more than an hour. Following the hearing, the magistrate took a further two hours to deliberate on his decision.

DEFENCE: WHY ROZINA DESERVES BAIL

"The accused deserves to be released on bail because she has not committed a non-bailable offence," said Advocate Shomaji at the hearing.

"Section 12 of the Official Secrets Act 1923 states that the accused 'shall be' given bail," said Shomaji adding that the word 'shall' gives her the legal right to get bail.

The defence further argued that charging Rozina for "spying" and for "wrongful communication" holds no bearing.

Abdur Rashid said, "The secretariat is not a prohibited area. For an area to be prohibited, there has to be a gazette notification declaring it to be such."

The defence pointed out that she held a legal pass to enter the building and was not a trespasser.

"If there was indeed any theft, there is no description of what kind of items were stolen in the first information report. They need to say what important document they are accusing her of stealing," stated Shomaji.

While the prosecution insisted that Rozina was taking secret documents relating to China and Russia, and hiding them in "special places of her body", the defence rebutted that there is nothing called "secret document".

Documents can be either public or private, they said. The Right to Information Act provides access to public documents, they added. Moreover, documents relating to vaccines cannot be an issue of national security.

Ashraful Alam said the whole case was fabricated and that the state had plenty of time to stage the case and plant evidence.

"The incident happened at 2:55pm but the case was filed at 8:15 pm. The police station is only 10 minutes away from the Secretariat," he said.

Aminul Gani Titu said according to the FIR, the delay happened because the complainant needed to talk to their superiors.

"The Secretariat is where the secretary and the minister sit. Who are these 'higher officials' they were receiving directions from?" he questioned.

According to the seizure list, which The Daily Star obtained, everything "seized" from Rozina was actually recovered from the possession of Health Services Division Additional Secretary Kazi Zebunnessa Begum.

"Since there is no description of what was taken, no recovery and no evidence of wrongful communication, this is a clear abuse of the law," Shomaji concluded.

Jyotirmoy Barua said the person who filed the case -- Shibbir Ahmed Osmani, a deputy secretary of the health services division -- was not even an eye witness.

"They are using a legal tool to criminalise journalists.

"Please ignore the FIR and give her bail. We will personally guarantee that she will be present at every trial," he said.

Rozina's lawyers went on to say that in the last 50 years, not a single case has been filed under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act 1923.

The prosecutors said, "We have not seen any case because such a heinous offence has not been committed in the last 50 years."

When Rozina's lawyers argued that as a woman in poor health, she gets priority for bail, Assistant Public Prosecutor Hemayet said, "Ghaseti Begum too was a woman!"

Ghaseti Begum is infamous for conspiring with the British against the last independent Nawab of Bengal.

"If she gets bail, she will tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses. She has been trying to influence the case even before the case started," he said.

Rozina is currently in jail in the case filed by Shibbir Ahmed Osmani on Monday night.

In his complaint, Shibbir said Bangladesh is in negotiations with several countries for purchasing Covid-19 vaccines and there are "non-disclosure agreements".

On Tuesday, she was taken to Kashimpur Central Women's Jail after a Dhaka court rejected the remand plea.

The day before, she had been confined inside the health ministry at the Secretariat for more than five hours before being handed to police and subsequently arrested in the case.

Rozina has written several in-depth reports on corruption in the health sector amid the pandemic.