After they were attacked and beaten by a mob, two teenage bloggers were arrested for allegedly posting “derogatory comments against Islam and Prophet Mohammad” on their Facebook accounts, according to Bangladeshs English daily Dhaka Tribune. Fellow bloggers allege that an Islamist student organization distributed false propaganda material which rallied the mob against the two bloggers and led to their arrest. The mainstream media has largely refrained from reporting this story. Bloggers say [bn] Kazi Mahbubur Rahman Raihan (Rahi) and Ullash Das, both secondary school students at Chittagong College, went to their school on March 30 to collect admission cards for upcoming Higher Secondary Certificate (college-qualifying) exams. They were then attacked by a mob of activists from the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student organization aligned with the countrys largest Islamist party. They were dragged into the street where they were beaten. Police intervened to rescue them, but later arrested the two teenage bloggers. They were sent to jail the following day, without bail, under Article 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act, which criminalizes “publishing fake, obscene or defaming information in electronic form.” Their defense lawyer Abu Bakar Siddique Azim says that Raihan writes on the Bangla blogging platform Istishon Blog under the pseudonym ‘Ghurnayoman Electron’ (Rotating Electron). Das uses only Facebook as a writing platform. He also said: “As far as we have seen, neither of them wrote any kind of public writing that goes against anyone’s religious belief.” The controversial Article 57 and other amendments to ICT Act were made by presidential decree in September 2013, despite broad criticism from legal and human rights experts. The law also allows police to arrest a suspect without any means of judicial approval and to detain that person, without bail, for an indefinite period of time.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 09:02:59 +0000
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