Mahmudur Rahman Surrenders and Sent to Jail

Mahmudur Rahman, the former acting editor of the Amar Desh newspaper, has been ordered to jail by the court in connection with the case involving the attempted abduction and murder of Sheikh Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

On Sunday (September 29), Mahmudur Rahman surrendered at the court of Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubul Haque and sought bail upon appeal.

After the hearing, the judge rejected his bail plea and ordered him to be sent to jail. The court also directed that Mahmudur Rahman receive division status in prison.

His lawyers, Syed Zainul Abedin Mezbah and Sheikh Shakil Ahmed Ripon, confirmed the matter.

On August 17 last year, Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor sentenced Mahmudur Rahman and journalist Shafik Rehman, along with three others, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in the case related to the attempted abduction and murder of Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

The other three convicted individuals are JASAS leader Mohammad Ullah, Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, and Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan.

According to the case details, prior to September 2011, high-ranking leaders of the BNP and other parties aligned with the BNP-led coalition, including Mohammad Ullah Mamun, the vice president of the BNP’s cultural organization JASAS, conspired at various locations, including the JASAS office in Paltan, Dhaka, New York City, USA, the UK, and different areas in Bangladesh, to kidnap and kill Sajeeb Wazed Joy in the US. Detective Branch (DB) Inspector Fazlur Rahman filed the case at Paltan Model Police Station on August 3, 2015.

On February 19, 2018, police submitted a charge sheet against the five accused. In this case, 12 people, including Sajeeb Wazed Joy, testified in court.

Meanwhile, after six years, Mahmudur Rahman returned to Bangladesh on September 27. He landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a flight from Turkey on Friday.