A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced rights body Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director Nasiruddin Elan to two-year imprisonment in a case over publishing a report about the death toll in clashes between the police and the Hefazat-e-Islam activists in Dhaka in 2013.
Dhaka Cyber Tribunal Judge AM Zulfiqar Hayat also fined the convicts Tk 10,000 each, in default, they will have to suffer one month more imprisonment.
This was the maiden case filed under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.
In 2013, Odhikar published a report on its website that claimed 61 people were killed at Hefazat rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel following a clash between Hefazat-e-Islam activists and law enforcement agencies on May 5, 2013.
Detective Branch (DB) sub-inspector Ashraful Islam filed a general diary (GD) with Gulshan police station on August 10 of the same year. The GD was later registered as a case.
On September 4 of the same year, DB inspector Ashraful Alam submitted a charge sheet against Adilur and Nasiruddin to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka.
In 2014, the court framed charges against the two accused and ordered the trial to begin.
The court was supposed to deliver the verdict on September 7 this year after the arguments of the prosecution and the defence ended on August 24.
On that day, the court deferred the pronouncement of the verdict to September 14 as its verdict was not ready.
Earlier, Adilur and Nasiruddin secured bail in the case.
