Prominent Bangladeshi journalist arrested for act of sedition

A prominent veteran Bangladeshi journalist, Shafik Rehman, has been remanded in custody by a court in the capital, Dhaka, on a charge of sedition.

Police say Rehman, who is 82, was arrested on Saturday because of evidence linking him to a conspiracy to murder the son of the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

The leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, demanded Rehman’s unconditional release. She said his arrest was an attempt by the government to distract the population from its “terrible misrule”.

Rehman, who holds dual British citizenship, is thought to be facing charges of attempting to abduct and murder Sajeeb Wazed Joy. A bail request by Rehman’s legal team was rejected.

He is the third pro-opposition editor to be detained since 2013. Mahfuz Anam, editor of the English-language Daily Star newspaper, faces charges of treason for accusing Hasina of corruption in 2007.

Joy has claimed that the articles were an attempt by Anam and the Star to “support a military dictatorship in an attempt to remove my mother from politics”.

Similar allegations are now being levelled against Rehman, a former speech writer for Khaleda Zia, the prime minister’s arch-rival.

For many years, Rehman edited Jai Jai Din, a mass-circulation Bengali daily. He now edits a popular monthly magazine, Mouchake Dhil.

His arrest comes against a background of growing concern about press freedom and freedom of speech in Bangladesh. In recent months there have been a series of Islamist killings of secular bloggers and publishers.

Sources: Arab News/BBC/Al Jazeera