SC orders return of Manna's passport for three months

Nagorik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna will be able to travel abroad for treatment as the Supreme Court has ordered the government to return his passport for three months.

The decision was made by a three-member appellate bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha at a hearing on Thursday.

Manna’s passport had been turned over as part of his bail agreement in two cases of sedition and inciting the army to violence. Manna had petitioned for his passport to be returned citing an overseas trip for treatment.

The Appellate Division has ordered his passport to be returned after a hearing at a Dhaka court.

The Supreme Court also ordered Manna to submit his passport within a week of his return from the trip.

Manna formed Nagorik Oikya after he was driven out of the Awami League during the 2008 elections for expressing reformist views during the 2007-08 military-backed caretaker government.

He was arrested in 2015 after two audio clips of his telephone conversations with BNP leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka and another unidentified man were leaked.

The three were heard discussing plans to engineer clashes at Dhaka University and incite the army to destabilise the government. Manna was heard expressing his eagerness to discuss the possibility of a military intervention with generals.

Twenty-one months after his arrest in two cases over sedition and inciting the army, Manna was freed on bail and taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for treatment.