Bangladesh cartoonist Kishore gets bail after 10 months in jail

The High Court has granted six-month bail to cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, who was detained in jail in a digital security case for 10 months.

A virtual bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mustafizur Rahman passed the order on Wednesday.

Writer Mushtaq Ahmed, co-accused in the same case, died in jail on Feb 25. His bail was sought in an application before his death, along with Kishore’s.

The court granted bail to Kishore as he was behind bars for a long time and the reinvestigation of the case is underway, the judges said.

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua stood for Kishore at the hearing, while Deputy Attorney General Md Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state.

Bangladesh Cyber Tribunal had ordered a reinvestigation into the case and asked police to submit a probe report on the matter by Mar 15, Bappi said.

Jyotirmoy, however, submitted an affidavit to inform the court about Mushtaq's death.

“There is no other case against Ahmed Kabir Kishore. As a result, there is no obstacle to his release from jail. We will try to complete this process in two to three days,” Barua told reporters after the hearing.

Asked if there would be an appeal against the bail order, Bappi said, "The prosecution apprised the court of the case's current status. A decision on whether to go to the Appellate Division will be made after consulting senior officials."

Kishore was arrested with writer Mushtaq on charges of propagating disinformation against the government on social media in a case under the Digital Security Act.

The case was started against 11 people by Deputy Assistant Director Zahirul Islam of RAB-3 with Ramna Police Station.