BD court orders hospital for arrested photographer

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s high court on Tuesday ordered authorities to send an arrested award-winning photographer to hospital for treatment, a lawyer said, after the veteran journalist and rights activist accused police of beating him up in custody.

Shahidul Alam, 63, a renowned Bangladeshi photographer, was arrested at his Dhaka residence by plainclothes policemen on Sunday after he went live with Al Jazeera speaking about the recent student protests rocking the country.

A lower court on Monday remanded him into custody for seven days after police pressed preliminary charges against him under the country’s controversial internet law.

He was accused of making "false" and "provocative" comments during the nine days of unprecedented protests by teenagers and students over road safety that paralysed Dhaka until last weekend. As he was brought to a magistrate’s court for a remand hearing on Monday, Alam told reporters that he was beaten by his interrogators and that they made him wear his bloodstained tunic.

But in a rare move, the high court on Tuesday suspended the remand and instead ordered him shifted to a state-run hospital in Dhaka after his wife filed a petition, his lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told AFP.

"The court also ordered the authorities to form a medical board to examine Alam’s health conditions and submit a report by Thursday," Barua said. Police would not be allowed to question Alam during his treatment but could only guard him at the hospital as he was "still under custody", he added.