BNP’s Tarique indicted in 2015 sedition case by police

A court in Dhaka has ordered trial for sedition charges against BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman, former ETV chairman Abdus Salam and the TV station’s two journalists.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 Nov 2017, 08:34 AM
Updated : 20 Nov 2017, 12:49 PM

The four were indicted on Monday, when a metropolitan sessions judge set Jan 15 for testifying witnesses.

Salam, who is out on bail, appeared before the court for the indictment hearing, where he pleaded not guilty, his counsel Md Shahabuddin told bdnews24.com.

Warrants were out for Tarique and the other defendants—former ETV chief reporter Mahathir Faruqi and former senior reporter Kanak Sarwar last month, when the court accepted the chargesheet filed by police.

The court said on Monday that the three will be tried in absentia.

The defendants stand accused of ‘threatening the country’s sovereignty and trying to create hatred against a legally constituted government by broadcasting and dishing out false and fabricated information’.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique has been living in the UK for the past nine years after he was released on parole.

On Jan 5, 2015, he had made controversial remarks regarding Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War in a speech in London, which was broadcast live by ETV.

The next day, Dhaka’s Tejgaon police sought clearance from the home ministry to file a sedition case.

On Jan 8, police filed the case against Tarique and Salam after securing the government’s permission.

The same month, the High Court slapped a ban on publishing and broadcasting of Tarique’s statements in any form of media in the country.

In September last year, police filed its chargesheet with the court, when it implicated the two ETV reporters.  

BNP leader Tarique, who has been living in London since 2008, has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by the High Court last year for money laundering.