Bangladesh clears cybercrime draft law with harsher punishments
Bangladesh has approved a draft of its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, which proposed law enforcers can arrest any person without a warrant and increased the jail sentence to 14 years.
According to The Daily Star on Tuesday, the original Act in 2006 had a maximum punishment of 10 years jail term with a heavy fine, while law enforcers had to seek permission from the authorities involved to file a case and arrest any person involved in cybercrime.
Destroying computer data with malicious intent, transferring data without proper authority, hacking, and releasing vulgar and defaming information in electronic form will be considered serious offences as per the proposed amendments. Some crimes were also non-cognizable under the existing Act, which means the police will be able to arrest a suspect without issuing any warrant by the court, but they will have to produce the arrested person before the court within 24 hours, M. Musharraf Hossain, cabinet secretary said.
