One hundred and five Bangladeshi writers, academics, journalists, and activists have called for the release of rights group Odhikar officials Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan, who were both jailed for two years in a case over their fact-finding report in 2013.

In a joint statement on Monday, they expressed their concerns and said that they were saddened by the court order.

The statement also called for upholding all democratic rights alongside the protection of human rights and ensuring uninterrupted freedom of expression.

The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal on September 14 jailed Adilur and Elan for two years each for a fact-finding report on violence and overnight operations during the Hefazat-e-Islam demonstrations on May 5-6, 2013.

Judge AM Julfikar Hayat also fined them Tk 10,000 each in the case filed with the Gulshan police in 2013 under Section 57(2) of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.

The signatories to the statement said that such an incident would create a serious obstruction to human rights activism.

Writer Shamsuzzaman Hira, political scientist Dilara Chowdhury, journalist Kamal Ahmed, academics Sayeed Ferdous, Nurul Amin Bapary, Mirza Taslima Sultana, Mohammad Azam, Zahed Ur Rahman, journalist Kamal Uddin Sabuj, researcher Maha Mirza, retired diplomat Sakib Ali, and writer Zia Hassan are among the signatories to the statement.