DHAKA, Sept 30, 2024 (BSS) - A court here today withdrew the arrest warrant
issued against veteran journalist Shafik Rehman in a case lodged for plotting
to abduct and murder ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed
Joy in the USA in 2015.
 
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubul Haque passed the
order as Rehman surrendered before the court and pleaded to withdraw the
warrant against him for filing an appeal against his conviction in the case.
 
"Earlier on September 22, the home ministry suspended Rehman's sentence for a
year on the condition of surrendering before the lower court and filing an
appeal against his conviction," defence counsel Syed Joynul Abedin Mejbah
told BSS.
 
The court of the then Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
Asaduzzaman Nur on August 17, 2023, convicted and sentenced five people
including veteran journalist Shafik Rehman and former acting editor of daily
Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman to seven-year imprisonment in the case.
 
The other convicts in the case are Jatiyatabadi Samajik Sangskritik Sangstha
(Jasas) vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun, his son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar and
Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan, an expat businessman living in the USA.
 
Police on August 3, 2015, filed the case with Paltan Police Station and on
February 19, 2018, filed the charge sheet against the five. A total of 12
witnesses including Joy testified in the case on different hearing dates.