Journalists Shafiq Rehman-Mahmudur Rahman sentenced to 7 years in prison
A court sentenced five people, including journalist Shafiq Rehman and acting editor of Dainik Amar Desh newspaper Mahmudur Rahman, to seven years in prison in the case of conspiracy to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajib Wazed Joy. At the same time, each of the convicts has been fined Tk. 5 thousand, in default of which they have been sentenced to another month in jail.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor announced the verdict on Thursday (August 17). This information is known from court sources.
The other convicted are Jatiyotabadi Samajik Sanskritik Sangstha(JSAS) vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed alias Caesar and US expatriate businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan. The accused are absconding. The court has issued an arrest warrant against them.
The convicts have been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in one section and two years in another section.
It has been learnt that from any time before September 2011, the vice-president of BNP's cultural organization JASAS, including Mohammad Ullah Mamun, the high-level leaders of BNP and other parties in the alliance led by BNP have conspired with the accused in different areas of United Kingdom and Bangladesh at JASAS's office in Paltan in the capital, New York City, America. Prime Minister's son and her technology adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy was planned to kidnap and kill him(Joy) in America. In that incident, DB Police Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed the case at Paltan Model Police Station as the plaintiff on August 3, 2015. On February 19, 2018, the police filed a charge sheet in the court against 5 people including journalist Shafiq Rehman.