Khairul Alam: International human rights organization Amnesty International has demanded the immediate release of Jagannath University (JU) political science student Khadijatul Kubra, who was imprisoned in the Digital Security Act case.
Amnesty’s Interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, Nadia Rahman, made this demand on the one-year anniversary of Khadija’s imprisonment without trial under the Digital Security Act.
In a report published on Amnesty’s website on Monday, Nadia Rahman said, ‘The year-long imprisonment and repeated denial of Khadija’s bail is a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh and is a fraud.
He has to go to university, study for his degree.’ Nadia also mentioned that he was arbitrarily detained for critical words.
Amnesty International called on the Bangladesh authorities and said, “All those who are arbitrarily detained in Bangladesh, including Khadija, should be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Khadijatul Kubra was a 17-year-old student of the Political Science Department of Jagannath University, Dhaka. She hosted a webinar on campus politics in November 2020 on a social media page called ‘Humanity for Bangladesh’.
After this 27 August 2022, Khadija was arrested under the Digital Security Act and sent to jail.
Police officers watched a recording of a webinar uploaded to YouTube by a guest speaker.
Earlier, a Bangladeshi army officer stationed in Canada is believed to have made critical comments about the government.
This led to a case under the DSA for ‘attempting to destabilize the law-and-order situation’ and ‘defaming’ the Prime Minister.