Govt considers lenient punishment for convicts under DSA: Anisul

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday said the government would consider lenient punishment for convicts under the existing Digital Security Act (DSA) while a process is underway to redraft the law and rename it as Cyber Security Act (CSA), reports BSS.

"As the extent of punishment in proposed Cyber Security Act (CSA) has been reduced to a great extent and this is the aim of the government and the parliament, so we will definitely look into matter to ensure this (reducing punishment) is implemented," he said.

The law minister said this while talking to newsmen after coming out of his meeting with UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis at his secretariat office.

Advocate Anisul Huq, an eminent lawyer himself, said the court can sentence, a person booked under older law, punishment narrated in the old law. But the government will look into the matter of cases filed under the old law (DSA), he added.

"DSA was not amended or we even cannot say that it is abolished completely. The changes that we have brought in the act are so many that if we would have stick to the previous name Digital Security Act, we had to name it as Digital Security Amended Act, which would have been confusing. So we opted for Cyber Security Act, we brought cyber to increase its extent," Anisul said while replying to a question on the necessity of transforming and renaming DSA as CSA.

UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis said she is happy that changes have been made in the act, adding, "As I am not a technical person and yet to see the new act in full, I cannot say anymore at this time."