Dhaka: A court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Mahfuz Anam, the editor of popular English newspaper published from Bangladesh, in connection with a sedition and defamation case.

Mahfuz Anam faces a spate of defamation and sedition suits from ruling Awami League supporters after he admitted that his newspaper published some reports without proper scrutiny during the military backed caretaker government in 2007 alleging corruption by the woman, who is now prime minister.

A Narayanganj court on Tuesday issued warrant of arrest against The Daily Star Editor and Publisher after a lawyer brought libel charge for reports published during the 2007-2008 caretaker government regime based on information given by Taskforce Interrogation Cell (TFIC).  

The order was issued although the Parliament had passed a bill on 2 February 2011 scrapping the provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for directly issuing arrest warrant against journalists, writers and others for writing or saying anything defamatory.

Also the same day, 18 other cases, including four seeking to bring sedition charges, were filed against Mahfuz Anam as the galore of lawsuits against him continued. The rest others are defamation cases.

The Star reports: With the cases filed on Tuesday, 56 lawsuits have so far been filed, beginning on 9 February, in 39 districts. Twelve of them are complaints seeking to sue the editor for sedition while the rest are defamation suits.

The galore of lawsuits came days after the Star editor at a talk show on 3 February made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgement in publishing a few reports based on information given by the TFIC during the 2007-08 caretaker government without being able to verify them independently.  

The admission sparked an outcry from government supporters. Prime Miniser Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed called for Mahfuz Anam to be tried for treason over the reports, which were also carried by other newspapers in Bangladesh.

From last few days, Mahfuz Anam was facing a series of apparently politically motivated lawsuits from pro-government groups for defamation, a criminal offence that in Bangladesh carries a penalty of up to two years in jail.  

Senior Daily Star journalist Reaz Ahmad told AFP of the lawsuits, which accuse the influential editor of defaming Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party.  

Ahmad said the complainants ‘felt aggrieved that their leader’s image was tarnished by the reports, which were based on information supplied by the then-government’s Joint Task Force Interrogation Cell’.  

The cell was set up by the caretaker government that ruled Bangladesh for two years after a military takeover in 2007, which led to the arrest of Sheikh Hasina and her main political rival Khaleda Zia, now leader of the opposition, on corruption charges.  

Neither was convicted of any crime and both denied corruption.

A government prosecutor has also sought permission from a Dhaka court to file a sedition case against Mahfuz Anam, a court official said.  

Criminal defamation cases are rarely brought before the courts in Bangladesh, and legal experts said the cases were likely aimed at intimidating the 65-year-old editor.  

‘In our experience, these cases are usually filed with the objective of harassing and intimidating the opponent,’ Tanim Hussain Shawon told AFP.

Fears over freedom of speech have been mounting in Bangladesh, which has seen a spate of killings of secular bloggers and publishers.  

David Bergman, a British journalist who has reported extensively on Bangladesh, said the lawsuits were ‘an attempt to crush independent media’.

On his blog, bangladeshpolitico.blogspot.nl, Bergman accused Awami League loyalists of trying ‘to close down, or at least subdue, any influential independent media or dissent that is not within their control’.  

In 2014 Bergman was found guilty of contempt of court for questioning the official death toll of three million in the 1971 independence war.  

Most independent estimates put the actual toll at hundreds of thousands.