‘86 sued per month on average’
At least 2,244 people with an average of over 86 persons per month have been made accused in 890 cases filed under the Digital Security Act in 26 months from January 2020 to February 2022, a research report said on Saturday.
The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) virtually published the report titled “The Unending Nightmare: Impacts of Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act 2018”.
Of the 2,244 accused, 842 people with an average of 32 per month were detained by law enforcement agencies, the report said.
Of the accused, 207 are journalists, 41 educators, 10 NGO activists, 254 politicians, 79 students, 32 government employees, 53 private employees, 79 businessmen, 21 legal practitioners and 8 religious leaders.
The CGS report further said the number of accused under the Digital Security Act increased to 121 per month on average between April 2021 and February 2022 from 61 persons on average during a period from January 2020 to March 2021.
The report said from January 2020-March 2021, some 913 people were made accused in 426 cases and 273 of them were detained with an average of 18 detentions per month.
Meanwhile, during the last 11 months from April 2021 to February 2022, at least 1,331 people were accused in 464 cases and 609 persons were detained with an average of 67 detentions per month, it says.
Presenting findings of the report, its lead researcher Professor Ali Riaz, a distinguished professor of political science at Illinois State University in the USA, said that situation in the later part of the research period deteriorated alarmingly with ‘indiscriminate’ use of the law.
Expressing his concern, he also said its use might increase further in the coming days ahead of the country’s parliamentary election next year.
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