Murder plot against Joy: Shafik, Mahmudur jailed for 7 years

A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced five people, including senior journalist Shafik Rehman and former acting editor of Daily Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman, to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment in a case filed in connection with a plot to abduct and murder of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the United States in 2015.

The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor delivered the verdict on Thursday.

The accused were sentenced under two separate sections. They were fined Tk 5,000 each, in default, they will also have to suffer more one month’s in prison.

Apart from former BBC journalist Shafik Rehman and Mahmudur Rahman, three other convicts in the case are Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha’s (JASAS) vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed alias Ceaser, and US expatriate businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.

The court also issued arrest warrants against the convicts as they were absconding during the pronouncement of judgement.

In the case, Sajib Wazed Joy, who is also the Information and Communication Technology Affairs adviser to the prime minister, appeared at the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor and submitted his deposition on November 13 last year.

Detective Branch (DB) inspector Fazlur Rahman filed the case at Paltan Police Station in Dhaka on August 3, 2015 against five people — Journalist Shafik Rehman, daily Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman, Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and US expatriate businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan for allegedly plotting to abduct and murder Joy in the US.

According to the case documents, the accused held meetings on different occasions in JASAS Naya Paltan office in Dhaka, in the United Kingdom and the United States to make plots in this regard.

Police on February 19, 2018, filed charge-sheet against the five to the court. Shafik Rehman was arrested in the case on April 16, 2016. Then he was released on bail and left the country.