Joy testifies in Dhaka court in case over plot to kidnap, murder him

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy on Sunday testified in a case filed against journalist Shafiq Rehman and five others on charges of conspiracy to kidnap and murder him in the United States.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor recorded his statement as the 10th testimony out of 15 in the case, Dhaka Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu confirmed the matter to the media.

Joy appeared in the court at 3:17pm and left at 4pm, he added. 

"In the testimony, Joy said high-level leaders of the BNP were involved in the conspiracy to kill him. A case has also been filed in the United States in connection with that. There, some people including FBI agent Robert Lactit, have been punished."

The public prosecutor said Joy testified in the American case as well. "The plot was drawn at the residence of journalist Shafiq Rehman in Bangladesh. Later, various documents were seized from Rehman's house."

Joy sought justice in court, added Abdullah Abu.

According to the complaint, BNP's cultural organisation Jasas vice-president Mohammad Ullah Mamun and other leaders of the BNP-led coalition gathered at the Jasas' offices in Bangladesh, the United States, and the United Kingdom once before September 2011. They planned to kidnap and kill Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

In that incident, DB Police Inspector Fazlur Rahman himself filed the case with the Paltan Model Police Station on 3 August 2015. Former acting editor of Dainik Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman, former Vice-President of Jasas Mohammad Ullah Mamun and his son Rizvi Ahmed alias Caesar, and US expatriate businessman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan were accused. 

Later in February 2018, police filed the charge sheet and included journalist Shafiq Rehman as an accused in the case.