Drop cases still pending under flawed cybersecurity law repealed in 2018

Cases pending under repealed provisions of Bangladesh's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act should be dropped, the Clooney Foundation for Justice's TrialWatch Initiative and Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) said in a report released on Saturday, reports UNB.
With a political transition underway in Bangladesh, the time is right for a review of the country's succession of draconian cyber laws, says the report.
The recent announcement by the interim government to withdraw all 'speech offence' cases under all three cyber laws is a step in the right direction, it observes.
Bangladesh has long had laws criminalising what is vaguely described as the dissemination of 'offensive' or 'false' information, or information that allegedly 'deteriorates law and order' or 'hurts religious beliefs' online, according to the report.
These criminal provisions have found form in a succession of laws: First, in provisions of the 2006 ICT Act, replaced in 2018 by the Digital Security Act (DSA), which in turn was supplanted by the 2023 Cyber Security Act (CSA).
Although each of those changes was trumpeted as a measure of reform, the substance of the criminal provisions remained the same.
Amnesty International said of the CSA, the latest and, supposedly, the most reformed of these laws, that it "repackages almost all repressive features of the DSA (and Section 57 of the ICT Act that preceded it)."
While Section 57 of the ICT Act and the DSA have been repealed, over a thousand 'speech related' cases initiated under them are still ongoing, as per figures released by the interim government.
A case under Section 57 that TrialWatch is monitoring has been pending since August 2018.
"While it is important to prosecute cybercrimes such as hacking, sexual harassment, and other serious offenses, Bangladesh's cybersecurity laws have been draconian and we urge the repeal of cases filed under them," said Zillur Rahman, executive director of CGS.
This joint report-the first in a series on Bangladesh's cyber laws-concludes that the principle of legality requires the dismissal of all cases pending under the ICT Act, because there is no legal basis for them to continue.