It is good to see some common sense prevail, as Jagannath University (JnU) student Khadijatul Kubra was discharged from a case filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA) at Kalabagan police station in the capital.
It is a rather unfortunate day when we have to congratulate Dhaka Cyber Tribunal judge AM Zulfiqar Hayat, who passed the order on Sunday this week, simply for doing his job properly and taking a sensible approach.
The handling of Khadija’s case over the past year is unquestionably one of the low points of our justice system in recent years - how it was justified to keep a teenager and university student in jail for 14 months on charges filed under the DSA is a question for which we may never receive an answer.
The fact that a Dhaka court continued to refuse her bail despite knowing of her illnesses is shameful, and does not present Bangladesh as a nation that citizens would feel proud to call their own.
However, with the dismissal of the case, it is encouraging to see some sense still existing within our legal system, which was also on display when they finally granted Khadija her bail at the end of last year.
More importantly, however, it is a travesty that those charged under the DSA are treated like criminals without any proof against them; it appears that when it comes to Bangladesh and our laws, most are guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around.
We hope that as Bangladesh looks to develop and become prosperous, its laws and how it treats its citizens develop alongside.
