In Bangladesh on Sunday, four bloggers who had been arrested in April and subsequently released on bail were indicted under Sec. 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act for inflammatory postings on sensitive religious issues hurting religious sentiments. These are the first defendants to be indicted under the Act since it was
amended earlier this year to increase penalties to imprisonment for 7 to 14 years.
BDNews 24 and Pakistan's
Daily Times report on developments. The Times explains the background:
There has been vociferous debate between staunch atheists and fundamentalists in Bangladesh’s social media for years, but it took a deadly turn in February when an anti-Islam blogger was murdered.
That came amid massive rallies in the capital in which secular groups demanded the hanging of leading Islamists accused of war crimes during the 1971 war.
Religious groups have since staged nationwide demonstrations, with their demands including the prosecution – and execution – of atheist bloggers.
