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Roundup: Pro-opposition Bangladeshi journalist arrested for attempted kidnapping of PM's son in U.S.

Xinhua, April 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Bangladeshi journalist known for his pro-opposition views has been arrested on charge of aiding conspirators who allegedly attempted to abduct and murder Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hours after his detention on Saturday, journalist Shafik Rehman, considered a well-wisher of ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was granted a five-day remand in a case filed for alleged attempts to abduct and murder Sajeeb Wazed Joy, also the ICT adviser to the Bangladeshi prime minister.

On Saturday morning, the leading pro-BNP intellectual was detained from his residence in capital Dhaka.

An official who declined to be identified either by name or department said detectives are investigating the case filed in August last year.

The case was filed after the conviction of Rizvi Ahmed Caesar, son of BNP's U.S. unit leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun, by a U.S. court for reportedly bribing a former FBI official Robert Lustyik for confidential information on Joy in 2013.

"There is ample information and evidence that Rehman had contact with the culprits who hatched the conspiracy to abduct and murder prime minister's son."

According to a U.S. Justice Department statement, Caesar, who was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in March last year, pleaded guilty to bribing Lustyik.

However, BNP spokesman Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has demanded the immediate release of Rehman and claimed that there is no case against him.

Alamgir also claimed that the journalist was arrested for writing against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government's failures.

Rehman who had worked in various media houses including BBC for long hit the limelight after becoming editor of a weekly magazine -- Jaijaidin -- in the 1980s because of its strong stance against the then military ruler HM Ershad.

Rehman, who also launched a Bengali daily newspaper namely Jaijaidin in 2006 and edited it for several subsequent years, currently anchors a TV program named "Lal Golap" (Red Rose).

Ex-PM Khaleda Zia also demanded Rehman's release immediately.

She also demanded immediate withdrawal of all "fabricated and false"cases against Rahman whom she termed "a brave journalist." Endit