Staff Reporter :BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged that journalist Shafik Rehman had been arrested only based on the facebook status of Prime Minister’s son and ICT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy.“The US court declined to recognise Joy as a victim of any plot to abduct and kill him. Based only on his (Joy’s) facebook status, and at the directive of the Police Headquarters in Dhaka, an FIR (First Information Report) was registered, secret probe was conducted, a case was filed and “an old, gentleman — Shafik Rehman — was arrested and taken on remand,” said Mirza Fakhrul while addressing a press conference at BNP Chairperson’s office in Gulshan in the capital on the day. “The so-called plot of abduction and killing Joy was not true and it has been proved by the US authorities,” Fakhrul claimed.The BNP Secretary General criticised the Cabinet Ministers and ruling party leaders of different levels for their propaganda that there was a plot to abduct and kill Joy although the court dismissed such claim. Fakhrul demanded immediate exchange for information on his (Joy’s) location. He also said the sentence under the US law for ‘what Shafik did’ is life in prison there.Magazine editor Shafik Rehman was arrested last Saturday in a case that charges him with conspiracy to harm Joy, who also advises the prime minister on ICT affairs. Referring to US court records, Joy says the convicted FBI agent had written in text messages that Rizve Ahmed Caesar, son of a Washington-based BNP leader, wanted to “off” Joy.”This (off) is slang in the US for killing someone,” Joy wrote. “So (Caesar) had told his co-conspirator that he wanted to kill me, well before he was arrested,” the Facebook post read. “After his arrest,” according to Joy, “he told the agents interrogating him the same thing.” Joy said Caesar pleaded guilty to a lesser crime, “which is something guilty people usually do to avoid losing at trial and getting a longer prison sentence for a more serious crime”. “He was facing a very long prison sentence for attempted murder, but got a shorter sentence by taking the plea,” Joy wrote. “Finally, Shafik Rehman as a non-US citizen had obtained secret FBI files through bribery. “In the US this is espionage and the sentence for that is life in a maximum security US prison,” he said at the end of his post. A court has granted police five more days to grill Shafik Rehman in custody.Police said, the former BBC staffer had admitted to meeting those convicted for plotting to abduct and kill Joy.Police also claimed to have obtained sensitive FBI files in a raid on his house.
