Srinagar, India, Nov 23 (EFE).- Renowned Indian journalist Fahad Shah was released on bail almost two years after he was arrested in Indian Kashmir on charges of sedition and anti-national activities, official sources said Thursday.
“Fahad was granted bail by the high court (of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh) on November 17 however he came out of the Kot Bhalwal jail, Jammu late last evening,” Fahad’s lawyer HL Raina told EFE.
Shah was arrested in February 2022 under anti-terrorism and sedition laws, following an opinion piece that was published in 2011 by the independent media he founded, The Kashmir Walla, which the authorities claimed had anti-national content.
The article was written by a university academic, Aala Fazlili, who was also arrested and remains in prison, and led to the shutdown of the media entity.
However, the court rejected Shah’s charges in its ruling, stating that «no evidence has been brought on record that the offending article was responsible in provoking persons to take to militancy.»
Shah, a prominent and award-winning journalist, was also charged with financing terrorism, but the court rejected these charges too.
Shah’s bail comes seven months after the Kashmir High Court annulled his detention, saying that his responsibility for public disorder in the region was «a mere surmise» of the authorities, but new cases and police charges prolonged his imprisonment.
The journalist’s arrest had sparked outrage among human rights organizations and media outlets both abroad and in India.
Arrests of activists and journalists under such laws are common in India, where the state uses certain laws to silence critical voices, according to civil organizations and detractors of the government.
In this regard, the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders (RSF) observed in a statement in October that Kashmir had become “a cemetery for independent journalism” especially since 2019, the year in which the Indian government stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status.
India ranked 161 out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2023 Press Freedom Index, a drop of 11 places from the previous year. EFE
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