The high court directed the police chief to file a sedition case against 29-year-old Md Ruhul Amin Khandaker, a lecturer at Jahangirnagar University's Institute of Information Technology, for making "derogatory comment" about the prime minister, the Star online reported.
Earlier this month, the court sentenced Khandaker, who is presently in Australia on study leave, to six months imprisonment for committing a contempt of court following his failure to respond to repeated summons to explain his posting on the social networking website.
The court on Monday directed the inspector general of police t to submit a report to it by January 15 after complying with the order, the report in Bangladeshi daily said.
Lawyers were quoted as saying in the media that this is the first time a Bangladeshi is being tried for sedition linked to a posting on a social networking site.
On August 13, upset over the death of Bangladesh's most famous filmmaker Tareque Masud and journalist Ashfaque Munier ishuk in a road accident in Manikganj, the lecturer had posted on his Facebook page, why Hasina does not die when many people were dying in road accidents, the report said.
On August 18 last year, the court had ordered the lecturer to explain in two weeks why he should not be prosecuted for his "derogatory comment".
On December 12, the high court had ordered the lecturer to appear before it on January 2 to explain why he should not be punished for committing contempt of court by not responding to its earlier order.
The Facbook posting during the lecturer's stay in Australia has since been deleted. The order has sparked outrage among the vibrant blogging community.
