The Dhaka high court has stayed the cancellation of Amar Desh’s licence for three months, which allowed the opposition daily to bring out an issue Friday for the first time in 10 days, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Amar Desh was back on the newsstands with a special four-page edition that was welcomed by the newspaper’s regular readers.
In the same ruling, the high court also forbid any form of torture of its editor, Mahmudur Rahman, who has been held since June 2.
“We hail the high court’s decision to guarantee Rahman’s physical integrity and allow Amar Desh to resume publishing,” Paris-based RSF said. “At the same time, we condemn the government’s politically-motivated persecution of this opposition newspaper and we call for Rahman’s immediate release.”
It said, “We also urge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s government to drop all the proceedings against Rahman and to guarantee the newspaper’s ability to continue operating after the three-month period.”
In its ruling, the high court said the police could continue to interrogate Rahman during his current 12-day period of pre-trial detention but ordered a medical examination after each session to verify that he has not been tortured. His lawyers will be allowed to watch each session but will be separated from him by a glass window.
