DHAKA, Aug 8, 2023 (BSS) - Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq today said the government would consider lenient punishment for convicts under the existing Digital Security Act (DSA) while a process is underway to redraft the law and rename it as Cyber Security Act (CSA).

“As the extent of punishment in proposed Cyber Security Act (CSA) has been reduced to a great extent and this is the aim of the government and the parliament, so we will definitely look into matter to ensure this (reducing punishment) is implemented,” he said.

The law minister said this while talking to newsmen after coming out of his meeting with UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis at his secretariat office.

Advocate Anisul Huq, an eminent lawyer himself, said the court can sentence, a person booked under older law, punishment narrated in the old law. But the government will look into the matter of cases filed under the old law (DSA), he added.

“DSA was not amended or we even cannot say that it is abolished completely. The changes that we have brought in the act, are so many that if we would have stick with the previous name Digital Security Act, we had to name it as Digital Security Amended Act, which would have been confusing. So we opted for Cyber Security Act, we brought cyber to increase its extent,” Anisul said while replying to a question on the necessity of transforming and renaming DSA as CSA.

UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis said she is happy that changes have been made in the act, adding, “As I am not a technical person and yet to see the new act in full, I cannot say anymore at this time.”

The cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of the new act, annulling some stringent provisions like jail terms on defamation charges.

Convicts under the proposed Cyber Security Act would require paying fines only instead of serving jail terms on defamation charges while Law Minister called the provision a “significant change”.

Anisul said the proposed CSA suggested a two-year prison term instead five years prescribed in DSA’s section 28 which was related to publication, broadcast of information in website or in any electronic format hurting one’s religious values or sentiment.

He said persons to be accused under this particular section could avail bail from the court as well while the DSA made the charges non-bailable.