SALEEM SAMAD
TO THE excitement of hundreds of journalists, its staffs, journalist union, rights organisations, civil society and opposition leaders the banned newspaper Amar Desh resumed publication after a High Court verdict on Thursday which postponement for next three months the government order that cancelled the publication’s license.
A four-page special edition hit the newsstand from Friday morning (today) after it was closed for 10 days.
Riot police tried to intervene when journalists and press workers unlocked the printing plant in the industrial zone in the capital Dhaka, with an excuse that they did not receive the court judgement. The police, however did not stop the broadsheet from printing and distribution, despite their presence.
The pro-opposition newspaper was forcibly closed down on June 1 midnight when hundreds of riot police in bullet-proof vest, armed with shot guns, batons and tear gas barged into the printing plant and sealed it few hours after the Dhaka district administrator cancelled the publication.
The High Court also stayed the government order setting aside the petition filed by acting editor of Mahmudur Rahman, seeking authority as publisher.
The district magistrate on June 1 cancelled the declaration of the daily's publications on the ground that there is no authorised publisher of the newspaper, after the publisher Hashmat Ali quit in October 2009.
Court orders not to torture
High Court has ordered the authority not to torture the detained acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, but said police officers can interrogate him during his 12 days remand.
The higher court in a rarely given guideline for interrogation said that the authority will undergo medical check-up before and after each interrogation to ensure that he was not tortured. Rahman could be quizzed only by the case investigation police officers, while his lawyers should be present on other side of a glass wall.
The higher court gave the verdict after Rahman’s lawyers challenged the three (3) separate remand orders by Dhaka metropolitan magistrate. #
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