San Francisco Frontiers - Bangladeshi journalist gets bail in digital law case

Shamsuzzaman Shams, 38, a staff correspondent for the Prothom Alo newspaper, was arrested at his home on Wednesday after a politician filed a complaint over a story on the country's cost-of-living crisis.

Shams was freed from the Dhaka Central Prison just outside the capital at 6:30 pm (1230 GMT), Tipu Sultan from the Bengali-language daily told AFP.

"He secured bail from the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court earlier in the day," he said.

A separate case under the same law against both Shams and the paper's editor was criticised by local and international rights groups, political parties and journalist unions.

UN rights chief Volker Turk has called for an immediate moratorium of the Digital Security Act, which he said was being used "to arrest, harass and intimidate journalists and human rights defenders, and to muzzle critical voices online".

According to records acquired by Amnesty International, between the law's enactment in October 2018 and June 2021 at least 2,646 cases were filed, with almost 6,000 people accused and 2,607 arrested.

On Saturday, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said in a statement that Shams had been arrested over "'child exploitation' as he offered ten taka to a 9-year-old boy and then expressed his own views in the name of that child".

The case filed against Shams, however, makes no reference to child abuse charges, but is related to the Digital Security Act.

Minister for Law Anisul Huq on Sunday hinted that the government may soon amend the act.

"We admit that there are some misuses and abuses (of the Digital Security Act). If necessary, we will make amendments to avoid these," he told reporters.

But he also insisted that a law to combat cybercrimes was still needed "everywhere in the world".

After his release from jail on Monday, Shams told reporters that the DSA should be suspended.

M.Powell--SFF