The High Court has granted interim bail to Shafiur Rahman Farabi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2015 murder case of blogger Avijit Roy.

The bail order was passed on Wednesday by a bench comprising Justice Zakir Hossain and Justice K M Rasheduzzaman Raja, following a hearing on Farabi's bail petition.

Senior lawyer SM Shahjahan, along with lawyer Muhammad Hujjatul Islam Khan, represented Farabi in court. Khan later stated that the High Court had accepted Farabi’s appeal against the trial court’s verdict in 2021 and has now granted interim bail. The duration of the bail will be confirmed upon release of the written order.

Khan argued that Farabi’s conviction was based on “incorrect observations.” He noted that none of the four accused who gave confessional statements mentioned Farabi’s name, nor did any witness apart from the investigating officer. Farabi also did not give any confessional statement and has been in jail since March 3, 2015.

Avijit Roy, a secular blogger, was hacked to death on February 26, 2015, near the Dhaka University campus. 

In 2021, Dhaka’s Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal sentenced five individuals to death and Farabi to life imprisonment for their involvement in the murder. Farabi filed an appeal the same year, which remains under review.

MN/