Bangladesh’s Investigative journalist, arrested under colonial-era official secrecy law, released on bail

Rozina Islam, an investigative journalist in Bangladesh, was released from jail on Sunday after a court granted her interim bail. Her arrest under a colonial-era secrecy law triggered widespread protests at home and abroad.

A prominent Bangladeshi woman investigative journalist was released from jail on Sunday after a court granted interim bail to her, a week after she was arrested on charges of "stealing important government documents" under a colonial-era official secrecy law that triggered widespread protests at home and abroad, including by the UN. Rozina Islam, a senior reporter of Bangla daily Prothom Alo, the largest daily newspaper based on circulation, was arrested on Monday after she allegedly used her cellphone without permission to photograph documents related to government negotiations to buy coronavirus vaccines, while she waited in the room of an official involved in the process. Ahead of her arrest, Islam was detained for over five hours at the Health Ministry. She walked out from the Kashimpur Women’s Central Jail on Sunday evening after a magistrate court in Dhaka granted her bail till July 15 on a bond of Taka 5,000 (USD 60) with two guarantors and condition of submitting her passport.