Smuggling information out of the country,[2] sedition[3] Money Fraud
Criminal penalty
Imprisonment
Criminal status
Imprisoned for 7 years,[4] 3 months[2] and for 4 years[3]
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Bangladeshi journalist. He is an editor of the Bangladeshi tabloid Blitz. In 2014, he was convicted of carrying documents provoking interreligious friction, and in 2015 of embezzlement.
Journalism
Choudhury is the editor and owner of the English language newspaper Blitz,[5][6] and editor-in-chief of Bangla weekly Jamjamat. Blitz is a tabloid which has been published every Wednesday since 2003 by Choudhury.[7]
The tabloid states that it watches, investigates, and focuses on Islamist militancy groups; and that it defends religious minority groups in Bangladesh.[8]
Prosecutions and assaults
Choudhury was arrested on 29 November 2003 when he tried to attend a seminar in Tel Aviv at the invitation of the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace. He was charged with smuggling country information, sedition, treason, and blasphemy in 2003, and a case was filed against him on 24 January 2004 by Mohammad Abdul Hanif, head of Airport Police Station of Dhaka, who claimed that he was a Mossad agent based on the documents found in his possession.[9] Choudhury faced charges of smuggling information out of country, money fraud,[10] sedition, treason, blasphemy, and espionage since January 2004 for attempting to attend a conference of the Hebrew Writers' Association in Tel Aviv. He violated the Passport Act by attempting to travel to Israel in November 2003; the Act forbids citizens from visiting countries with which Bangladesh does not maintain diplomatic relations, and is usually punishable with a fine. On 29 November, he was taken into police custody and allegedly blindfolded, beaten and interrogated for ten days in an attempt to extract a confession that he was an Israeli spy.[11] He spent the next 17 months in solitary confinement and was denied medical treatment for his glaucoma. On the intervention of US CongressmanMark Kirk, who spoke to Bangladesh's ambassador to the US, Choudhury was released on bail, though the charges were not dropped.[12]
In July 2006, the office of Choudhury's newspaper was bombed by Islamist militants.[13][14]
In October 2006, a mob stormed the Blitz' offices and beat Choudhury, fracturing his ankle.[15] According to Bret Stephens, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, in September of the same year, despite the government's reluctance to prosecute, a judge with Islamist connections ordered the case to continue because Choudhury had "spoil[ed] the image of Bangladesh" and "hurt the sentiments of Muslims" by lauding Jews and Christians.[16] After the police detail that had been posted to the offices had left, the offices were ransacked and Choudhury was badly beaten by a mob. When he lodged a formal complaint with the police, an arrest warrant was issued for him. The US Embassy in Dhaka sent an observer to his trial.[citation needed][12]
Choudhury later lodged a case in the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate against his attackers, most of whom were affiliated with the Cultural Wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).[citation needed][16]
On 18 March 2008, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) abducted Choudhury from his office at gunpoint. He was blindfolded and taken to an RAB office before being released. Series of written complaints were sent with the military-controlled interim government on this incident, but action was never taken by the Bangladesh authorities against the RAB.[17][18][19][20]
On 22 February 2009, armed men claiming to belong to the Awami League entered Choudhury's office, ransacked it, and physically assaulted him and other members of the Blitz newspaper.[21]
n March 2011, Aryeh Yosef Gallin, the founder and president of the Root and Branch Association (a nonprofit group that promotes cooperation between Israel and other nations), expelled Choudhury from its Islam-Israel Fellowship after reports accused the Bangladeshi of swindling "emotionally vulnerable single Jewish ladies" out of tens of thousands of dollars.[1][22]
On 7 November 2012, the Dhaka court sent Choudhury to jail in connection to an embezzlement case filed by his business partner Sajjad Hossain, chairman of Bangladesh Center for International Studies. He was convicted in 2015 by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court and sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment.[23][24]
On 9 January 2014, he was convicted by a Dhaka court of sedition under section 505 (A) of Bangladesh's Penal Code.[9][25] He was convicted and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment by the Bangladeshi court for carrying documents provoking interreligious friction, relating to his attempt to travel to Israel.[26][27][28]
^Freund, Michael (3 November 2006). "US slams trial of Bangladeshi newsman". Holiday International. Archived from the original on 25 March 2007. On October 5, a mob stormed the premises of Choudhury's newspaper and beat him, fracturing his ankle.
^ abStephens, Bret (10 October 2006). "Darkness in Dhaka". Wall Street Journal (Opinion). p. A15. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
