Unheard Voices

Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission.

The High Court finally compelled the military-controlled government of Bangladesh to release an imprisoned businessman on Aug. 28, after the authorities ignored the court’s order for more than a week.

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On August 28, the High Court acquitted six of the accused in the November 3, 1975 jail killing case, two of whom had earlier been sentenced to death and four to life while upholding the death sentence of Muslemuddin. The convictions of eight others who did not appeal remains valid.

Our political history is riddled with tales of conspiracy and murder. Most unfortunate, however, is the precedent that has been set over the decades, of killers getting away with impunity. (more…)

Comment from SC

No matter how diehard military supporters are seeing prudence and greatness in this release, it is too little - too late. IF it is a strategic decision concerning national security, the stupid and cohorts should have thought about it before they acted. Arresting SH, KZ and interfering into DU are the greatest tactical mistakes that this junta has done, even if someone naively believe they had good intentions. Lot more could be achieved by doing institutional reforms riding people’s support rather than concentrating on removing two leaders.

With all the best wishes for SH’s health, I have to say, this release has come with two ominous shadows. Firstly, SH is released neither by the people’s movement nor by the laws of the land. No matter how much AL screams that no condition is attached, some shady business transaction has happened. Any under the table deal must have something evil in it that requires hiding from the public eye. IF AL assumes they can put the dagger in BNP’s heart by partnering with the junta, it will come back and get them. We people, need and demand a strong, healthy opposition.

Secondly, when SH was arrested, the ‘non-independent’ judicial magistrate has magically opened his shop to take the case at 7:30 am and sent her to jail. Now, suddenly all three-four judges in the ‘independent’ judiciary, within couple of hours, finds that SH’s physical presence is not needed anymore and she is not a flight risk (in fact the government is putting all the effort to fly her out!). It is the ultimate miscarriage of judicial process. Once a military ruler started sell-buy business of politicians making ‘politics difficult’, now this military ruler and sycophants started buying and selling of judges, shedding the last bit of trust from the court of law.

Is there any last chance to preserve some of the nascent goods and prevent heroic comeback of the corrupt politicians? Don’t get me wrong, I am 110% against any direct or indirect military rule, but don’t find a scintilla of sympathy for the corrupt and incompetent top tiers that were surrounding the two leaders right before the collapse.

(AFP/Farjana Khan Godhuly)

This once again proves the tragic state of judiciary in Bangladesh and goes to show that things hardly have changed from the pre 1/11 days when verdicts on Ershad’s cases were decided based on which party he was supporting that day. Makes you wonder whether post 1-11 is simply a continuation of pre 1-11 minus 2. This is what we said when she was arrested 11 months ago and also on the merits of the first case.

Bangladesh Lets Hasina Visit U.S. for Health Check (Update2)/By Jay Shankar (more…)

New Age Editorial:
On Wednesday, April 23, the Appellate Division curtailed the authority of the High Court Division to hear bail petitions in cases under the Emergency Powers Rules, in a judgement that has sparked furore among legal experts and practitioners, and been dubbed as the last nail in the human rights coffin・ a tsunami on the rule of law and the judiciary・ a black chapter in the judicial history of Bangladesh・ etc. The chorus of concern and criticism by legal experts and practitioners is quite understandable. The Emergency Powers Rules, as amended on March 21, 2007, bars the accused from seeking bail in any court or tribunal during inquiry, investigation or trial. (more…)

High Court Judgment to Set up Civil and Criminal Courts and Suppression of Violence against Women Tribunals in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

The High Court on 24th Februart 2008 directed the Government to set up three separate civil and criminal courts and Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Domon (Suppression of Violence against Women and Children) Tribunals in Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban Districts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, as soon as possible, and no later than one year from the date of judgment.1

The judgment was given in a writ petition filed in 2006 by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and others, on behalf of the peoples of three hill districts, seeking directions upon the Government to give immediate effect to existing laws which provide for the establishment of such courts in the CHT and to implement the constitutional mandate for separation of the judiciary .2

It is hoped that implementation of this judgment will address the acute crisis regarding access to justice in the CHT. Reportedly over 3,500 cases from the three districts have been lying unresolved before the Chittagong Session Judge’s Court for many years. Hundreds of people in the Bandarban district alone have been languishing in prisons without facing any trial due to the existing backlogs and the lack of any accessible forum to hear their cases.

Background

The judicial system of the three districts which formerly comprised the Chittagong Hill Tracts — Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban – was earlier governed by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation 1900, leaving the executive in control of all judicial functions. Further, no District or Sessions Judges’ Courts were ever been established in the three Hill Districts, the Chittagong-based Additional Divisional Commissioner, being an executive official, dispensing judicial functions in the cases.

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Based on the recent developments, the following has been updated. Please check at the bottom for the latest developments. This entry was first published on September 3rd.

• In a seminar namely ‘Judicial Reform and Independence of Judiciary’, held on August 11, the chief justice said ‘I want to assure the nation that we will come forward. The Supreme Court played a role in the past at the critical juncture of the nation. It is doing so at present and will do so in future to pull the nation out of mire.’
• Current president’s term expires on September 5th
• Army chief General Moeen U Ahmed visits the president Aug 22nd amid the DU crisis
• Rumours of chief justice getting the post of president after the expiration of Iajuddin’s term while critical political cases are pending with Supreme Court

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photo: Daily Star
As part of the “package proposal” offered by the military high ups in their meeting with Dhaka University Teachers’ Association couple of days ago, the four RU teachers have been pardoned by the President and subsequently released.

If any one had any doubt about where the real powers lie in today’s Bangladesh, the people representating the government in the negotiating table should remove all that doubt.

In the meantime, verdicts in a similar case keep on getting postponed. Coincidence? Hardly. While the teachers’ get released through this pardon, the whole episode truly exposes the state of the “independent” judiciary in our country.

Institutional reforms — R.I.P.

Dhonni rajar punni desh.

Relevant comment from SC in a previous thread

Three DGFI’s representative met DUTA and as per different newspapers, gave some sort of proposal for releasing the teachers/students. Does that bother anyone? Even after that, Fakhruddins will call themselves as the government of the country? Shame on us! Either we stop them here or we are in for a grueling long haul against the Gestapo.

It shows KGazi is partly right; our Universities lost their moral authority little bit. They are sitting down with army to free their colleagues, not with the head of the government or the head of the state.

Also read: The letter of RU teacher “If I am jailed”

An account of how the case was conducted and was not reported in the media is here

Today’s breaking news:
DHAKA (AFP) — Four Bangladeshi academics were sentenced to two years in jail each Tuesday for fuelling student unrest in August that prompted the country’s emergency government to impose a curfew, police said.

The professors from Rajshahi University in the west of the country were found guilty of breaking emergency laws banning protests and all gatherings, police inspector Mahbub Siddiqui said.

“They joined protests and marches defying the ban during the nationwide student unrest in August,” he said.

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The road to democracy is in a mess just like the picture above from today’s Daily Star.

Before we get into it, like Shadakalo, let me first acknowledge that I am no fan of the current BNP and the legacy of Khaleda Zia. Neither do I wish to get back to the era of of Tareq Rahman and his gang. Also I believe the folks at the helm are well intentioned people who want to make a change. Having said that someone please tell me how do we get out of this mess that is currently being created in the name of “functional democracy”. The process they are going about making democracy happen through command politics is not only wrong but also is creating far longer term potential danger of unstability in our country. To most of the people who are paying cursory glance to what’s going on centering the BNP break up in Bangladesh lately, you are making mistake if you think this is unimportant. What is being done to BNP is going to be defining the rest of the term for this caretaker government. Make no mistake about it. They are fooling no one.

Here is what we are hearing in the daily speeches — all wonderful things undoubtedly.

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… shouting for silence in a library. Well, that does not quite have the ring of the original slogan popularised during the Vietnam war protests in the U.S., but we have to keep UV family-friendly! It does vaguely capture the sentiment of the original: namely that you cannot hope to achieve a goal through means that are fundamentally contrary with that goal itself. This is exactly what a lot of us are protesting in Bangladesh.

Last week’s arrest of Sheikh Hasina has led to a familiar debate between those who want due process and the rule of law to reign supreme and those who feel that exceptions to these must be made for her and other politicians currently behind bars, especially since they themselves may not have respected the rule of law and the right of others to due process when they were in power. I count myself among the former, and my reasons are those that I put forward above: namely, you cannot hope to establish a “corruption-free Bangladesh” (ostensibly the loudest, if not the most important, goal of this current CTG) by means that breed further corruption - such as lack of due process, unequal application of the law, and subversions of the law itself.
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While we mindlessly debate pros and cons of the Hasina’s arrests, not a single person cared to discuss the merit of the case. You can hate Hasina or Khaleda as much as you want and you may think public hanging is the only possible punishment for these two leaders, but you, at the same time can not forget that we are not living in a jungle where we can do to people whatever we want. So let’s step back and take a look at the facts. But before AL supporters start cheering on the tone of my post, think for one second whether you asked for due process when Tareque Rahman was arrested in a similar extortion case. If you did not, then you have also lost your moral right to ask for due process in Hasina’s case. Its not about supporting one person over another or being AL or BNP or army sympathizer. Its purely about what kind of precedence this government is setting in the name of checking corruption. Now those who talk about people not caring about this case and caring more about inflation amazes me that they think these issues are not related. Why we shouldn’t be caring about this issue which is setting the trend for the coming days? Yesterday it was Tareque, today it is Hasina, tomorrow it will be you.

Now let’s look at the case for which Sheikh Hasina was denied bail. The CTG is not accusing Hasina or Joy to have made 300 million or for creating a shopping mall in Florida as suggested by some commenters. Court of law can not run on rumours and hearsays. But the accuser is accusing Shaikh Selim of extorting money from him for a business deal and because Mr. Selim threatened to use Hasina and her power if he didn’t get his way, it implied that Hasina was a party to this scam as well.

One Mr. Ajam J. Chowdhury filed an extortion case in June 13th this year. The exact case report in verbatim is here:
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We have raised our voices for a due process in the government’s dealings with the accused in different corruption cases. We believe this is vital for the credibility and continued popularity of the care taker government.

In addition to the due process I thik it is about the time to start monitoring the fairness and a sense of proportion in the trials those are going on in different summary judge courts.

Ex BNP member of the parliament Mr ABul Hossain Khan today has been sentenced to a 7 years jail term. Lets briefly discuss what did he do and how the whole prosecution evolved.

There was a government circular on 5 th Feb to surrender licensed arms. Accordingly this ex- representative submitted his licensed pistol on the 6th of Feb. 8 days later, he returned to the Thana to surrender some bullets those were not submitted initially with the pistol.
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Read it however you want, but Jalal Alamgir makes a very powerful case in his write up in DS today.

And if you’re still unsure about mala fide intent or want to uncover a tragic “conspiracy against the state,” this is where I suggest you look. After years of theft and abuse of power, our interest unquestionably is to secure justice, but some within the government are trampling the integrity of that effort by once again using it as a boxing arena to carry out their personal vendetta.

He has also launched a website as well. Particular highlight is the charges brought against him.

Mash’s take here which sums it up well.

Last time we highlighted it.

If you want to send your protest, go here

Also see Case against Adab officials.

Moudud and beer cans

Egyptian Islamist zealot turned Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri is apparently the poster boy of violent terrorism and his face in the media evokes a violent image of Islam. During the early school days of Zawahiri, the then Egyptian government decided to exterminate Islamic militancy by hanging every possible person with the slightest connection with Islamic militancy. The bloody and heavy handed violent methods of Egyptian government in controlling the influence of some relative less violent groups like Muslim brotherhood evoked sympathy and ideological allegiance to these groups among many young people. At that time Zawahiri was recruited to Muslim Brotherhood and later he assumed a leadership role in Egyptian Islamic Jihad. If we take lesson from history we would see that violently exterminating the leadership of Egyptian Islamic groups did no have any long term effect in curbing Islamic terrorism. Rather we now have this Ayman al-Zawahiri threatening the world with new fear every now and then.

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