The court sentenced two youths in Rajshahi to 15 years rigorous imprisonment for spreading religious incitement on Facebook. The accused were sentenced to five years imprisonment on each of the three separate counts. Rajshahi Cyber Tribunal Judge Md. Ziaur Rahman gave this verdict.
Apart from this, the two have been fined Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh each, in addition to imprisonment. The two accused will have to serve another six months of imprisonment without labor for every five lakh taka in non-payment.
The two convicts are Wasim Al Razi (33) of Enayatullapur Syedpur village of Rajshahi's Godagari upazila and Nasim Ali (20) of Alokchatra village of the same upazila. In between, Wasim Al Razi used to write on Facebook by identifying himself as a journalist. He has been accused of various misdeeds in the area as a journalist.
According to the case and court sources, Wasim and Nasim opened a Facebook account in the name of a person from the Hindu community. On August 1 last year, they sent religiously provocative texts and pictures from that account. The communal situation in that area worsened. Taking advantage of this situation, Wasim blackmailed the person from the Hindu community and pressured him to collect money from him. However, when the person did not agree to pay the money, Wasim and Nasim got angry and threatened the person over the phone by using the police identity of the Cyber Crime Unit.
After learning about the matter, the police arrested the two. Later, evidence of sending provocative and offensive pictures through fake Facebook IDs was found on the mobile phones recovered from them. In this incident, a case was filed against them under the Digital Security Act at Godagari police station. After the hearing and taking the testimony of the witnesses of the case, the court announced the verdict today.
Ismat Ara Begum, the lawyer of the state side of the court, said that the two defendants were present in the court when the verdict was announced. Later they were sent to Rajshahi Central Jail. In the verdict, the court said that the sentences of the three sections of the accused will be executed in stages.
According to the review of the court, the incident of this case is very sensitive. If the local witnesses had not taken a brave role and the film had been circulated among the common people, the religious sentiments of many would have been hurt. It might have caused untold incidents like Comilla, Ramu and Narail.
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