Star editor gets bail in Rangpur

A Rangpur court yesterday granted bail to The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam in a Tk 100-crore defamation case.

It fixed May 26 for the next hearing on the case, filed by Motahar Hossain Moula, organising secretary of the ruling Awami League's Rangpur district unit.

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The case is one of the 79 the Star editor faces since February 9, days after he made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgment in publishing without independent verification some reports based on information given by the Task Force Interrogation Cell during the 2007-08 caretaker government rule.

Defence counsels yesterday argued there was no defamatory element in the complaint. The complainant's lawyer opposed it.

After a hearing, Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Shafiul Alam granted the editor bail upon the signing of a bond of Tk 1,000 with two guarantors.

Following the filing of the case in Rangpur on February 15, the court summoned Anam to appear before it on March 1.  

The cases, filed between February 9 and February 22 in 53 districts, include 17 pleas for bringing sedition charges. A total of Tk 1,32,811 crore has been sought as compensation.

Local and international journalists and their unions have condemned this barrage of cases against the Star editor.