Amar Desh contempt case adjourned

Dhaka, Aug 12 (bdnews24.com — The Appellate Division on Thursday adjourned for four days its hearing on the contempt of court case against Bengali-language daily newspaper Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman and four other people.

A five-member Appellate Division bench, headed by chief justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, gave the order to resume its hearing on August 16.

At 10am, Rahman was produced before the court for the second time in relation to this case. Four other defendants in the case, including Hasmat Ali Hashu, publisher of the newspaper, also appeared at the court.

State counsel, additional attorney general MK Rahman, read out the report in question, headlined 'The Chamber Bench (of the Appellate Division) means a stay order on behalf of the government,' to the court.

Supreme Court lawyer Reazuddin Khan filed the petition after the report was published in the newspaper on April 21.

The defendants' lawyer barrister Rafiqul Haque said that Rahman had given a response to the contempt of court ruling, while the four others pled unconditional clemency at the court.

Following a petition, the High Court, on June 2, had issued a contempt of court rule and asked Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, its publisher Hashmat Ali Hashu and three others to appear in court on July 5.

A month earlier the police had stormed the Amar Desh newspaper office, on June 2, and arrested acting editor Rahman on fraud charges brought against him by the paper's publisher, who himself had been briefly 'detained' on June 1.

On June 1, the government had stopped the publication of the newspaper and sealed off its press.

The Appellate Division on July 18 upheld the previous High Court order staying, for three months, the government decision to cancel Amar Desh's declaration.

The newspaper started publication in Sep 2004 with Hashu, the brother of BNP chief Khaleda Zia's former political secretary Mossaddek Ali Falu, as the publisher.

Former energy advisor to Khaleda, Mahmudur Rahman took over the paper's management in 2008.

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