Well-respected Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam has reportedly been denied bail by a court in Dhaka.
Judge KM Imrul Kayes of Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge’s Court passed the order on 11 September. Various media outlets in Bangladesh about this.
Public Prosecutor Mohammad Abu Abdullah moved against the bail petition, while Barrister Sarah Hossain stood for Alam – who filed the bail petition through his lawyers on 28 August, asking for it to be granted as he is ill.
Alam was picked up from his home in Dhaka on 5 August. Police filed the case against him and he stood before a Dhaka court the following day. In court, Alam claimed he was tortured in custody, an allegation which the police have denied.
Shahidul Alam is an internationally renowned photographer. Source: Supplied
After a seven-day remand, Alam was denied bail and sent to Dhaka Central Jail on 13 August. His detention was extended until the 11 September bail hearing. A court in Dhaka declined to hear an earlier bail petition on 4 September 2018 as a presiding judge said he was “embarrassed” without revealing the cause of the “embarrassment”.
The controversial section 57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act has been used in more than 20 cases recently involving journalists, most of them related to news-reporting, according to Bangladeshi newspaper .
Alam is charged with “spreading propaganda and false information against the government”, after posting videos on Facebook and being interviewed by Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera about the government’s crackdown on protests over summer, which were originally sparked off by a bus accident but expanded to critique perceived corruption in the country.
Alam is a well-respected photographer and educator. He is the founder of the renowned Pathshala South Asian Media Academy and the Drik Picture Library, and the director of the Chobi Mela photography festival. He has served on the juries of various competitions, including World Press Photo.
