DHAKA, Bangladesh
A Bangladeshi university teacher has been sentenced to three years in jail for a Facebook comment criticizing the country's prime minister.
Ruhul Amin Khandaker, a teacher from Jahangirnagar University, was sentenced on sedition charges at a local court in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday, according to local news website bdnews24.com.
The website reported that a case had been filed against the teacher for wishing death on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Facebook comment, which claimed the government's failure to regulate driving licenses led to a recent crash that killed a noted filmmaker.
Khandaker was tried in absentia as he was reportedly in Australia on study leave since 2009.
In 2013, another teacher was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for a Facebook post threatening to kill the prime minister.
The ruling comes as freedom of speech has become an increasingly contentious topic in Bangladesh following the murders of four secular bloggers this year as well as contempt of court charges against journalists and civil society activists who allegedly criticized a domestic war crimes tribunal.
In March, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, highlighted the effect of "heavy-handed official responses" on freedom of speech in Bangladesh.
