Four Bangladeshi bloggers indicted for Anti-Islam comments

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On Sunday, a local court in Dhaka brought charges against four bloggers for making “derogatory comments about Islam” on social media websites.
The official trial of the two cases against them will begin on November 6, 2013.
The four bloggers, who were granted bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice.
If convicted under the Information and Communications Technology Act, 2006, in the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court, each of them will face a long period of imprisonment, specifically 10 years and a fine amounting to Tk 1 crore.
The cabinet, however, had approved the draft ICT (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013, proposing that the maximum jail term for an offence covered by the law be increased to 14 years.
The four alleged culprits are Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, 24, a master’s student at Dhaka University; Russel Parvez, 36, a teacher at an English medium school; Mashiur Rahman Biplob, 42, a resident of the capital’s Pallabi area, and Asif Mohiuddin, 28, an ex-student of a private university.
Shuvo, Parvez and Biplob were arrested on April 2, under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in different areas in the capital on suspicion of making derogatory comments about Islam.
Police later filed a general complaint against the trio for uploading “contents insulting to Islam” on social media platforms.
Asif was arrested on April 3 at an Uttara hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for fatal stab injuries he had sustained in an attack on January 14.
The arrests coincided with a countrywide hate campaign by so-called Islamist groups who alleged that “atheist bloggers” were behind the Shahbagh movement that demanded death penalty to war criminals.
There was fierce criticism on social networking sites, with many users observing that the government had made the arrests in fear of angry reactions from the Islamist groups.
After investigations into the cases, the Detective Branch of police pressed charges against the four on April 17, accusing them of hurting religious sentiments by the contents posted on Facebook and different blogs. The court accepted the charges on June 2.

4 COMMENTS

  1. People should be making anti-Islam comments when extremists are murdering those who simply believe differently about religion…Islamic intolerance for other points of view should be criticized and rejected by honest Muslims…there is no compulsion in religion and those who insist on their version of Islamic values should be eliminated from civilized society..

  2. What kind of religion is Islam which requires so much protection? …a man made of bones and flesh can insult Islam ??? It only shows inner fears and weakness of the followers…if their belief is strong why the hell it should be shaken…every now and than ? No other religion is the world has death penality for challenging it .!!!

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