Journalist Rozina Islam on Sunday was released from Kashimpur Central Jail, several hours after a metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka had granted her bail after a week of her arrest at the secretariat where she was gathering news related to Covid vaccines and their distribution process.

Rozina, a senior reporter at Prothom Alo, came out of the jail along with her family members at about 4:15pm as dozens of her colleagues welcomed her with flowers.

She said that she must continue journalism and thanked all of her fellow journalists who tendered their supports during her arrest.

Senior jail superintendent Halima Khatun at Khashimpur Female Prison said that they received the bail order and released Rozina after due formalities.

Metropolitan magistrate Baki Billah, who had heard the petition on Thursday and kept the decision pending for Sunday, passed the bail order virtually on Tk 5,000 bail bond.

He also asked Rozina to surrender her passport to the court.

Her husband, Monirul Islam Mithu, said that they had submitted her passport to the court.

He said that Rozina was suffering from multiple diseases and was under the treatment of a physician in Singapore.

Metropolitan magistrate Baki Billah while delivering his order said that the mass media was a strong medium and all should discharge their duties professionally.

The magistrate observed that the media and state indeed supplemented each other.

In his verbal order, Baki said that misunderstanding should be resolved for the sake of the greater interest of the country and everyone should act so that the image of law and court did not fade away.

Public prosecutor Abdullah Abu said that the case was extremely sensitive and if the suspect, Rozina, deposited her passport, the prosecution had no objection to her bail.

Rozina’s lawyer, Ehsanul Haque Samaji, said that they had no problem with the condition proposed by the prosecution.

After the bail order, the defence counsel told reporters that they hoped that the court would pass the written order at the earliest.

The court order came amid protests by journalists, politicians and rights and civic groups across the country.

The United Nations and different international rights organisations also expressed concern over the arrest of Rozina, an award-winning investigative journalist.

Rozina’s husband Monirul Sunday evening that she was admitted to a private hospital after her release and a number of tests were conducted

On May 17, Rozina had been kept confined in the health ministry at the secretariat for over five hours before she was handed her over to the Shahbagh police.

A health ministry official filed a case against her with the police station under the Penal Code and the colonial era Official Secrets Act 1923 on charges of lifting documents and ‘spying’.

In the case, the official alleged that Rozina had lifted secret documents related to Covid vaccine procurement from two vaccine-producing countries and took photographs of the documents.

After appearing before the court on May 18, Rozina said that she was wronged for exposing health ministry corruptions through her reports.

On May 18, a metropolitan magistrate, Mohammad Jashim, rejected a remand application submitted by the police and set May 20 to hold a hearing for her bail.

The Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police is now investigating the case.

Sub-inspector Nizam Uddin Fakir on Sunday said that the court on the day allowed a petition submitted by the DB seeking forensic examinations of two mobile phone sets of Rozina.

Journalists, academics, lawyers, rights activists, and other professional bodies considered Rozina’s arrest as a blatant attack on the free press and demanded that the government should withdraw the case against her unconditionally and prosecute people who tortured and confined her in the health ministry.

Law minister Anisul Huq, however, on Sunday said that the withdrawal of the case was not under the jurisdiction of the law ministry while the complainant and the home ministry had the jurisdiction

He argued that the withdrawal of the case was not the issue rather it was more important to acquit someone after an investigation.