Shafiur Rahman Farabi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of blogger and writer Avijit Roy, has been released on bail.
He was released from Kashimpur High-Security Central Jail in Gazipur at around 10:15am on Friday.
Senior Jail Superintendent Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Kashimpur High-Security Central Jail confirmed Farabi’s release on bail.
Jail Superintendent Abdullah Al Mamun stated that the bail documents reached the jail on Thursday. After verification and confirming that there were no other pending cases against him, he was released.
A High Court bench granted bail to Shafiur Rahman Farabi. Senior lawyers SM Shahjahan and Muhammad Hujjatul Islam Khan represented him in court. The bail was granted on July 31, considering that the confessions of the four co-accused did not implicate Farabi, no direct witness named him, and he did not make any confession himself. Additionally, his prolonged detention was taken into account.
Later, the Chamber Court, after hearing the state’s petition to suspend the bail, issued a “no order,” allowing the High Court’s earlier bail decision to stand.
It may be recalled that on February 26, 2015, Avijit Roy was hacked to death near the TSC area of Dhaka University while returning from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair. His wife, Rafida Ahmed, was also critically injured in the attack. Avijit’s father, Professor Ajay Roy, filed a murder case at Shahbagh Police Station in the capital.
After investigation, charges were filed against six individuals on February 18, 2019. The court framed charges against them on August 6, 2019. The prosecution presented 28 witnesses in court during the trial.
On February 16, 2021, Judge Md. Majibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in Dhaka delivered the verdict, sentencing five accused to death and one accused (Shafiur Rahman Farabi) to life imprisonment. Farabi appealed the verdict in the High Court the same year.