The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam today secured bail in a Tk 5 crore defamation case in Gazipur.

Gazipur Senior Judicial Magistrate Iqbal Masud granted the bail after Mahfuz Anam appeared before the court and sought bail this morning.

Gazipur district's education secretary for ruling Awami League, Amanat Hossain Khan, filed the defamation suit on February 17. The court had issued a summons on Anam to appear before it.

This defamation case was among the 79 lawsuits filed against the editor in 53 districts. Seventeen among them are petitions that sought to sue Anam for sedition.

A case spree against the Star editor began days after he, at a TV talk show on February 3, made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgment in publishing some reports, based on information given by the Taskforce Interrogation Cell during the 2007-08 caretaker government rule, without being able to verify those independently.

The cases against the Star editor have drawn condemnation from local and foreign journalists and their unions as well as human rights bodies.