The statement calls on the Bangladesh government to immediately suspend the use of the draconian Digital Security Act pending its repeal or amendment in line with international human rights law. The DSA has repeatedly been used against journalists in retaliation for their work on topics including governmental policies, corruption, and illicit business practices.

The statement notes the March arrest of Shamsuzzaman Shams, a correspondent for the newspaper Prothom Alo, under the DSA and the subsequent DSA investigations opened into Shams, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, executive editor Sajjad Sharif, an unnamed camera operator, and other unidentified people in connection to Shams’ reporting on price hikes. Shams has since been released on bail.

The statement expresses concern regarding the weaponization of other laws against journalists and the media, noting the ongoing investigation of Prothom Alo special correspondent Rozina Islam under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and the penal code in apparent retaliation for her reporting on alleged government corruption and irregularities in the public health sector at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan, MP
Minister of Home Affairs
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
minister@mha.gov.bd

Mr. Zahid Maleque, MP
Minister of Health and Family Welfare
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
minister@mohfw.gov.bd

Dear Ministers Khan and Maleque,

We, the undersigned press freedom and human rights groups, write to seek your leadership in ensuring an immediate end to the harassment of Bangladeshi journalist and human rights defender Rozina Islam. Islam faces an ongoing investigation under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and the penal code in apparent retaliation for merely exercising her right to freedom of expression through her reporting on alleged government corruption and irregularities in the public health sector at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. If formally charged and convicted under the Official Secrets Act, Islam faces up to 14 years in prison, or a death sentence. Islam was arbitrarily detained for seven days in May 2020, when a health ministry official filed the complaint accusing the journalist of taking photos of official documents in the ministry’s secretariat, leading to the ongoing investigation.

Since her release on bail, Islam has been routinely summoned for court appearances, many of which have been unduly delayed and rescheduled in violation of her right to a fair trial as guaranteed under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bangladesh is a state party. In August 2021, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit asked banks to provide transaction details of any accounts held by Islam, in an apparent move to further intimidate the journalist.

Islam continues to face unlawful restrictions on her right to freedom of movement in violation of Article 12 of the ICCPR. She was granted bail on the condition that she surrender her passport, imposing an effective travel ban despite the fact that there is no provision for conditional bail in the Code of Criminal Procedure. In January 2022, a Dhaka court temporarily permitted the return of her passport for six months. Since then, however, Islam has been obliged to request her passport from the court whenever she plans to travel abroad.

After 14 months of investigation, the detective branch of the Dhaka police submitted its final report to court in July 2022, and called for the case against Islam to be dropped due to lack of evidence. Seven months later, in January 2023, the health ministry official filed a naraji (no-confidence) petition against the detective branch’s report, in response to which the court directed the Police Bureau of Investigation to further investigate Islam. We are deeply disturbed by a government official’s use of a naraji petition to prolong the investigation of a journalist under a national security law, particularly given that police have failed to produce a charge sheet or present any concrete evidence indicating that she has committed a crime.

Islam’s work, for which she received the United States Department of State’s Anti-Corruption Champions Award in 2022, is a public service, not a crime, and should be protected under Sections 4 and 5 of the Disclosure of Public Interest Information (Protection) Act.

We urge the authorities to fully respect and protect the human rights of journalist and human rights defender Rozina Islam, including her right to a fair trial, and to immediately cease all forms of judicial harassment against her, facilitating the return of her passport from judicial custody, and ensuring that she is not subjected to further retaliation for her work.

Signed:

Amnesty International

Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network

Capital Punishment Justice Project

Coalition For Women In Journalism

Committee to Protect Journalists

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Free Media Movement

Front Line Defenders

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

International Federation of Journalists

International Women’s Media Foundation

Overseas Press Club of America

Pakistan Press Foundation

PEN America

PEN Bangladesh

PEN International

Reporters Without Borders

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

South Asian Journalists Association

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

CC: Mr. Anisul Haq
Minister of Law, Justice, and Parliament
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
secretary@lawjusticediv.gov.bd

CC: Mr. A.K. Abdul Momen, MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
fm@mofa.gov.bd

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Madeline Earp.

In May 2020, the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite unit of the Bangladeshi police under U.S. sanction since last year for gross human rights violations, detained Ahmed and cartoonist Kabir Kishore from their Dhaka residences and accused them of violating the Digital Security Act (DSA). A first information report, which opens a police investigation, accused Ahmed, Kishore, and four others of running the popular Facebook page “I am Bangladeshi,” which featured political and social commentary on COVID-19.

Kishore told CPJ after his release last March that during the first days of his detention, authorities tortured him by repeatedly beating him in the head before taking him to a Rapid Action Battalion office. There, he found Ahmed and learned that he had been abused too. Ahmed “told me he was tortured by electric shock,” Kishore told CPJ. (It is not possible for CPJ to independently verify the allegations, but they are in line with details of abuse in custody in Bangladesh.)

Denied bail at least six times, Ahmed was in legal limbo for much of his detention. According to the DSA, authorities should have completed their investigation within 60 days, or sought an extension from a court. But his lawyer said that didn’t happen on time – authorities only filed a charge sheet after nine months of detention. 

He languished in jail for more than nine months before he suffered a heart attack, reports said, and died on February 25, 2021; his family claims there was a three-hour delay before he was admitted to the hospital, according to the United Nations. 

CPJ emailed the offices of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Law Minister Anisul Haq, Attorney General Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin, and Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam, for comment but did not receive any reply. Khandaker Al Moyeen, the director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

Barua, who represents formerly detained journalists Shafiqul Islam Kajol, Jamal Mir, and Mahtabuddin Talukdar, spoke to CPJ via video call about Ahmed’s alleged torture and death, the reaction inside Bangladesh, and the dangers of the law used to detain Ahmed and Kishore. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you find out about Mushtaq’s death?

I saw a Facebook post by one of my lawyer friends. I was very surprised that jail authorities did not directly communicate with me or family about his death. It was completely unexpected. [I had expected that] in a couple of days, he was going to be released on bail. 

In January 2021, I filed an application before the High Court division for bail for Mushtaq and Kishore. Due to the long list of cases, I had to wait for more than two months to get the matter heard. Mushtaq died on 25 February 2021. Subsequently, I managed to get the matter heard and Kishore was released on bail on 4 March 2021.

What was the reaction inside Bangladesh?

The reaction inside Bangladesh was furious. There were protests. Before Mushtaq’s death, I was one of the only people demanding the repeal of the Digital Security Act. After Mushtaq’s death, there was a radical change. More people, civil society organizations, and human rights defenders started asking for repeal of the law because it was so draconian that a writer like Mushtaq died in jail. 

The unfortunate thing is that earlier police seized his personal gadgets, computer, and mobile phones. On behalf of his wife, we filed an application before the International Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka to return those things because they are not relevant in the case. But surprisingly, the judge refused without giving any proper reason as to why those items should be kept in the custody of the police. That evidence cannot be used against the other accused because these criminal allegations are a matter of personal liability. We are going to file another application before the High Court division on that issue.

What is your reaction to the Home Ministry’s March 2021 report that Mushtaq died of “natural causes”? 

As Mushtaq’s lawyer, I expected that an independent inquiry should have been conducted into his death and the report should be published for public scrutiny. But now, other than some [basic details] the state provided to some newspapers, we do not know what is in that report. 

I am not aware of any other health complications that Mushtaq experienced besides some difficulties with his eyes. He never mentioned that he was feeling seriously bad; otherwise, I would have filed an application for medical support.

The cause of death itself remains unclear. Kishore alleged that Mushtaq was tortured. If Mushtaq was not released, if he was not exposed otherwise by any other events between his arrest and his death, then the torture and death should be considered connected events. In a case of death like this, if we consider this as a kind of homicide, then the causation is quite a serious issue. The people who tortured him under the custody of the state should have been made liable for his death. 

As soon as Mushtaq died, his body was handed over to the family and they had to complete the burial process straight away. We were so surprised that we could not even think straight at that time. The state said they conducted an autopsy report after he died, but his family and I did not see such a report. It could be torture. It could just have been a heart attack. Without access to the autopsy report or Home Ministry report, the death of Mushtaq remains completely unclear to us, even until today.

Law Minister Anisul Haq recently acknowledged that the Digital Security Act has been “misused and abused” and said that journalists would no longer face immediate arrest after a complaint is filed against them under the law. Are these actions enough to ensure that journalists will not face legal retaliation for their work? 

I have been dealing with cases of journalists for the last couple of years. Especially during the COVID-19 period, journalists were the worst victims of the DSA. Jamal Mir and Mahtabuddin Talukdar were in jail for more than one year under DSA cases. They were denied bail many times. 

After Mushtaq’s death, there was a reasonable conclusion that the use of the DSA was too harsh.

Although the Law Minister said repeatedly that a journalist will not be arrested immediately after a case is filed against them, actually the process is the other way around. In most cases, journalists are abducted or detained illegally having no case against them. If the police do not bring them in front of a magistrate after 24 hours, the detention becomes illegal under the Code of Criminal Procedure. Then, after two or three days, or a month later, they are implicated in the case under the DSA. In Mushtaq and Kishore’s case, they were picked up from their houses [and allegedly tortured] before a [first information report] was filed against them. [The first information report filed against Ahmed claimed he was arrested on May 5, when his wife told The Daily Star that he was in fact detained a day earlier.]

With regard to the DSA, I do not use the term “abused.” The law in itself is so vague, ambiguous and draconian that if someone uses it, that in itself is abuse. That is why we are calling for the law to be repealed.

What other mechanisms has the government used to target journalists?

Whether you speak about the DSA, the Official Secrets Act [a colonial-era law under which journalist Rozina Islam was detained in connection with her reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic], or the Bangladesh penal code, these are tools in hands of the state. The application of laws like the DSA and Official Secrets Act are about power. It is about how politicians are threatening the people of this country. People are being abducted, taken away forcefully from their residence without legal authority.

How should the world remember Mushtaq?

Mushtaq should be remembered as a writer and successful entrepreneur. He died for freedom of expression. Journalists should remember him as an icon, and continue raising their voices against violations of human rights and civil rights. They should not stop. They should not be afraid of any persecution because people are always there to stand by them. People should remember him as a fighter. He died fighting for his rights and the people of the country.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Sonali Dhawan/CPJ Asia Researcher.