Staff Reporter :
A petition has been placed requesting the Chief Justice to form a special High Court bench for the bail hearing of the editor of Bengali Daily Sangram, Abul Asad, as he is suffering from various physical complications.
Senior advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain on behalf of Abul Asad filed the petition on May 5 this year through the Registrar General of the Supreme Court, Md Ali Akbar.
The petition said, “Abul Asad has been in jail since December 2019. But the said 80 year old senior citizen of the country is suffering from various physical complications including asthma. Besides, he is gradually losing his right eye sight. Doctors advised him to undergo cataract surgery on his right eye immediately.”
“Being a respiratory patient, he is at high risk of contracting coronavirus. In this situation, he is not getting a chance to get bail by taking shelter in the court. Because, all kinds of trial activities of the courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, has remained suspended from the end of March,” read the petition.
So the petition has been filed requesting the chief justice to take an initiative for forming a special High Court bench for bail hearing of Abul Asad considering his health condition, also read the petition.
Hatirjheel police took him in custody on December 12, 2019, after the newspaper published a report describing executed Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla a ‘martyr.’
Quader Molla was hanged on December 12, 2013 after being convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal. On December 12, 2019, the newspaper published a report under the headline “Today is the sixth martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Abdul Quader Molla.”
Later a case was filed on December 13 by freedom fighter Afzal Hossain accusing Abul Asad and two others. Then a Dhaka Court on December 14 sent him on a three-day remand and after the remand the court sent him to jail on December 19.
