Bangladesh court releases journalist

Shahriar Kabir has campaigned against Islamists

By the BBC's Alastair Lawson in Dhaka

The High Court in Bangladesh has ruled that a prominent journalist who has been imprisoned on sedition charges for two months should be given bail.

Lawyers acting for Shahriar Kabir say that he is being victimised solely because of his work to highlight the plight of the country's Hindu community.

Hindu children face uncertainty

Mr Kabir was arrested in November at Dhaka's international airport after returning from a trip to India.

Pictures he had taken of Bangladeshi Hindus in refugee camps in the Indian state of West Bengal were confiscated.

Jubilant lawyers acting for Shahriar Kabir say that the court ruling is a victory for press freedom in Bangladesh.

They hope Mr Kabir will be released from Dhaka's notoriously overcrowded central prison as soon as the necessary paperwork has been completed.

'Prominent citizen'

The two judges in the High Court ruled that Mr Kabir met two important criteria for people accused of criminal offences to be given bail:

• he was unlikely to abscond because he was a prominent citizen;

• and evidence against him could not be tampered with, they ruled, because it was now in the safe custody of the court.

The sedition charges against him still stand, and the government seems determined that his freedom will only be short-lived.

Government lawyers may well appeal against the decision to give him bail, although so far they say they have received no instructions to do so.

Mr Kabir's lawyers argue his case is doubly significant.

Press freedom

It raises serious questions about freedom of the media and conditions endured by Bangladesh's Hindu minority since the election in October of a new coalition government.

This coalition contains two hard-line Islamist parties.

Islamist tendencies have grown

Mr Kabir's defence team say he has been victimised because he has constantly criticised the main constituent of the government - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - for its links with what he sees as the Islamic fundamentalist parties, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The government argues that Mr Kabir has exaggerated the difficulties endured by Hindus and, in the process, has made highly derogatory remarks about Bangladesh in violation of the constitution.

News of Mr Kabir's release is certain to be welcomed by numerous international human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which described him as a prisoner of conscience.