Online Desk: Prothom Alo’s Savar staff correspondent, Samsuzzaman, is being taken from the Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur back to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj. He was sent off from the Kashimpur jail by prison van at 10:15am Saturday morning, senior jail superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail part 1, Shahjahan Ahmed informed it. Earlier on Friday at 1:30pm, journalist Samsuzzaman was brought to the Kashimpur Central Jail from Keraniganj.

Senior jail superintendent Shahjahan Ahmed said that on Friday night journalist Samsuzzaman was at the Kashimpur Central Jail part 1. On Saturday morning he is being sent back to the Dhaka Central Jail. When asked why journalist Samsuzzaman was being sent to the Dhaka jail after being brought from there to Kashimpur, Shahjahan Ahmed replied that it was an ‘order from the higher authorities.’

At around 10:30am Thursday, 30 hours after being picked up by persons claiming to be CID men from his Savar residence, Samsuzzaman was produced before at Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court. The Ramna police station police appealed to the court for him to be sent to jail. Samsuzzaman’s lawyer appealed for him to be granted bail. After the hearing, the CMM court’s additional chief magistrate Tofazzal Hossain rejected the bail appeal and ordered that he be sent to jail. Then at 3:30 pm he was taken by prison van to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj. There had been no trace of Samsuzzaman after he had been picked up at 4:00am early Wednesday morning from his Savar residence by persons identifying themselves as CID men.

Around 1 hour 45 minutes before he had been picked up, the first case had been filed against him under the Digital Security Act at the Tejgaon police station. The case had been lodged by Jubo League Dhaka city North ward 11 general secretary Syed Md Golam Kibria. However, information about the case only surfaced on Wednesday afternoon. But he was sent to jail on Thursday in a new case filed under the Digital Security Act at the Ramna police station. This case was filed 19 hours after he was picked up.

Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman has also been named as an accused in the case at Ramna police station, under which Samsuzzaman was sent to jail. The plaintiff in this case is High Court lawyer Abdul Malek (Mashiur Malek). The two cases were filed on allegations of Prothom Alo raising questions on the country’s image and achievements by a ‘graphic card’ shared on Facebook on 26 March from an online report of the newspaper. When discrepancies in the Facebook post were noted, the post was removed and a correction published.

Over the past few days, ministers and leaders of the ruling party have been using this post to castigate Prothom Alo. The party’s affiliated bodies have been holding various programmes too.

The Editor’s Council, Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) and various human rights, journalists, political and civil society organisations, as well as eminent personalities of the country, have demanded that the case against the Prothom Alo editor be withdrawn and the arrested journalist Samsuzzaman be freed. Various countries and international organisations have also expressed their concern over the matter.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has said that the Digital Security Act is being used all over Bangladesh to arrest journalists and human rights activists, spread harassment and fear, and silence online critics. He called for the Bangladesh government suspending the implementation of the Digital Security Act immediately.