Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was arrested on 29 November 2003, while trying to attend a seminar in Tel Aviv on the invitation of the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace. He was charged with sedition, treason and blasphemy in 2003. A case was filed against him on 24 January 2004 by Mohammad Abdul Hanif, head of Airport Police Station of Dhaka, who claimed that he was a Mossad agent based on the documents found in his possession. On 9 January 2014, he was convicted by a Dhaka court of sedition under section 505 (A) of Bangladesh's Penal Code.
Choudhury is facing charges of sedition, treason, blasphemy, and espionage since January 2004 for having tried to attend a conference of the Hebrew Writers' Association in Tel Aviv. He violated the Passport Act, by attempting to travel to Israel in November 2003. The Act forbids citizens from visiting countries with which Bangladesh does not maintain diplomatic relations, usually punishable by a fine of $8. It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh currently does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan and Israel. However, the travel ban on Taiwan was silently lifted while people started the business with Taiwan in spite of the travel ban. On 29 November, he was taken into police custody and, as he tells it, blindfolded, beaten and interrogated for 10 days in an attempt to extract a confession that he was spying for Israel. He spent the next 17 months in solitary confinement, and was denied medical treatment for his glaucoma. On the intervention of US Congressman Mark Kirk, who spoke to Bangladesh's ambassador to the US, Choudhury was released on bail, though the charges were not dropped.
Choudhury was arrested on 29 November 2003, at Dhaka airport when he was found to be carrying discs and papers containing information on "sensitive issues including minority repression and the al Qaeda network in Bangladesh". His movements had been monitored for some time, on suspicion of his connection with the Israeli secret service Mossad.
Choudhury's father Ghulam Ather Choudhuri died on 29 March 2003, while his mother Sharifa Choudhury died on 9 August 2005. He was in prison when his mother died. The then-government in Bangladesh refused a petition by his family for him to attend his mother's funeral.