Bangladesh: Blogger Arbitrarily Detained Despite Bail
Selim Khan is a 19-year-old atheist blogger from a village in the Southwest of Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country.
Selim has his own blog where he expresses views critical of religion, and people in his village know him to be someone who is an atheist and critical of Islam. Selim’s lawyer told Amnesty International that they believe the individual who posted Selim’s comment publicly on Facebook had joined the private Facebook group to take a screenshot of Selim’s posts to specifically target him.
The politician who saw the screenshots of Selim’s comment on Facebook and filed the complaint had previously warned Selim to refrain from posting such views. According to a report filed by the police, the screenshots caused an angry mob to gather outside Selim’s house. Selim had already left his house for safety and the police later dispersed the crowd. The police report also accuses Selim for using his blog to express critical views on religion. The Cyber Security Act (CSA) was introduced by the government in September 2023 to replace the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA). However, the CSA retains many repressive features of the DSA that were used to threaten and restrict the rights to freedom of expression, privacy and liberty. Even if the Law Minister had presented the CSA as being more aligned with human rights, particularly as it removed prison sentences for defamation and increased the number of bailable offences, the law continues to be used as a way to silence critical voices.
Bangladesh has a history of targeting atheist bloggers solely for freely expressing their views. Atheist blogger Avijit Roy was killed with a machete in the streets of Dhaka, the Capital of Bangladesh, and another blogger Washiqur Rahman was killed near his home in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka a month apart, back in 2015. This sparked the persecution of atheist bloggers and their families, while online spaces for them to express their views were closing down. Many atheist bloggers fled the country in the years that followed for fear of reprisals.