Ex-JMB chief Saidur Rahman sentenced to more than 7 years in jail

Maulana Saidur Rahman, a top leader of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh or JMB, has been sentenced to seven years and six months in prison in an anti-terrorism case.

JMB operatives Abdullahel Kafi and his wife Ayesha Akhter jailed for the same period in the case on Thursday are fugitives.

Rahman, who once headed the outlawed extremist group, appeared aloof as Judge Imrul Kayes read out his verdict. He smiled as he spoke to his lawyers. 

He had been arrested exactly seven years ago on this day in 2010, so he has already spent seven years behind bars and will now serve the remaining six months in jail for this case.

“The convicts, despite having knowledge of the Quran and Hadiths, invented their own analysis of the religion in the leaflets they distributed,” the court said.

“We have seen JMB leaders act like this before.”

Citing the anti-terror law, the judge sentenced the convicts to the strictest punishment applicable for such acts.

The three were arrested in a police raid on a house near Dhaka’s Donia Nur Mosque in 2010. Police found booklets of extremist propaganda and anti-government publications in their possession.

Kafi, who also uses the alias Abdullahel Kadri, and wife Ayesha, went into hiding after they secured bail from the High Court.

“The judgement of this sensitive and important case has been fast-tracked for the sake of the country and its people,” prosecution lawyer Manzur Maula Chowdhury had said earlier.

The trial began with depositions of five prosecution witnesses in 2011.

But the trial process came to a halt because permission had not been secured from the home ministry, a prerequisite for starting any case under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The case received the ministry’s approval on Aug 26 last year and the trial resumed on Feb 14 this year.