Additional Metropolitan Session Judge Tarik Ezaz passed the verdict in response to an appeal filed by Mahmudur on 12 December last year. Mahmudur sought relief from the “unjust” seven-year in prison sentence given in August 2023.

In the previous verdict, journalist Shafiq Rahman and three others also got seven year’s labourous imprisonment in a court allegedly rigged by the then fascist Awami League regime.

On 29 September last year, following the ouster of Awami League government, Mahmudur surrendered before the court and was sent to prison. On 3 October, he secured bail.

According to the case statement, from September 2011-August 2015, leaders of BNP and its allied political parties, held discussions in various parts of the country, the US and UK to hatch a plot to kidnap and kill US-resident Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina.