Shafik Rehman, Mahmudur jailed for 7 years

A Dhaka court has sentenced five people, including senior journalists Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur Rahman  to seven years’ imprisonment in a case filed for plotting to abduct and kill Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and ICT affairs adviser.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Nur delivered the verdict in the case in their absence on Thursday.

Other three convicts are Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha (Jasas), his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, a United States expatriate.

The court has also fined them Tk 5,000 and in default, they have to serve another one month in jail.

Mahmudur Rahman was former acting editor of now defunct daily Amar Desh.

The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or their surrender.

According to the case statement, in 2011 the accused plotted to abduct and kill Joy in the USA. A case was filed on August 3, 2015 and the Detective Branch (DB) of police pressed charges against the five accused on February 20, 2018.