The High Court yesterday granted bail to Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary of rights organisation Odhikar, for six months in a case filed for publishing a “false report” on its website.
His lawyer Advocate M Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star that there was no legal bar to his client's release from jail following the HC order.
Adilur is now in Gazipur's Kashimpur Jail-1, the lawyer said, adding that completing the process of his release might take two to three days.
Adilur was arrested on August 10 in connection with the case filed under Information and Communications Technology Act, 2006, for publishing the “false report” on the crackdown on Hefajat-e Islam in the capital's Motijheel area on May 5.
The report claimed that 61 people had been killed during the crackdown.
Law enforcers flushed out several thousand Hefajat activists who had taken to the streets and resorted to violence during and after their May 5 Dhaka siege programme.
The HC bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader granted the bail to Adilur after he had filed an appeal.
Earlier on September 25, the Cyber Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka rejected his bail petition for the third time in the same case.
The Odhikar secretary challenged the tribunal's order and filed an appeal with the HC, requesting it to grant him bail.
Additional Attorney General Momtajuddin Fakir, who opposed the bail to Adilur, told The Daily Star that the government is yet to decide whether to file an appeal with the Supreme Court against the bail order.