ZCZC
BSS-23
RELEASE-JOURNALIST-ROZINA
Journalist Rozina freed on bail after 7 days
DHAKA, May 23, 2021 (BSS) – Rozina Islam, senior correspondent of the daily Prothom Alo, was freed from the jail this afternoon, seven days after her arrest in a case filed by the health ministry.
“Journalist Rozina Islam was freed at 4:18pm . . . as the prisons authorities got the court’s order,” jailer of Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail Hosne Ara Bithi told newsmen soon after her release.
Rozina left Kashimpur Central Women’s jail in Gazipur where her family members and colleagues were eagerly waiting for her as a Dhaka court granted her interim bail.
Earlier in the morning, Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Baki Billah granted Rozina’s bail on a bond of Taka 5,000 and on condition of submitting her passport, with two guarantors — one of whom must be a lawyer, and the other a legal guardian.
On Monday, Rozina Islam was kept confined at the health ministry for more than five hours before being handed to police when she went to the Secretariat to perform her duties.
Later, Shibbir Ahmed Osmani, a deputy secretary of health services division under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, filed the case with Shahbagh Police Station.
Soon after the arrest, strong protests and condemnation were raised from different local and international organizations demanding her immediate release.
BSS/ASG/SIR/TAN/GA/1716 HRS