The Daily Prothom Alo newspaper published a report on September 18 that murder charges against three persons have been dropped on the orders of the government of Bangladesh. According to the report, Altab Hossain was shot dead on 27 April 2000 in Badalpara village, Upazilla in Pabna district. Altogether 29 persons were charged in the Special Session Judge’s Court of Pabna. But on 9 February 2006 Senior Assistant Secretary of the Home Ministry, Sheikh Momena Mani, sent a letter to the District Magistrate of Pabna to withdraw the names of the first three accused. The public prosecutor was informed accordingly, and on June 25 the three were released from the charges.
In Bangladesh it is little more than a formality for the Home Ministry to have the courts release persons from prosecution on the ground that the cases have been politically motivated. In a recent report, the Asian Legal Resource Centre, sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission, has described how–for instance–this July the brother of a government minister escaped prosecution over a series of bomb blasts that occurred in 1998, after a similar order (Lawless law enforcement & the parody of judiciary in Bangladesh; see www.article2.org). The Home Ministry has no hesitation in deciding itself qualified to adjudicate these cases on behalf of the courts, which are anyhow compliant with its wishes and not independent. In this manner, justice is mocked and political expediency reigns supreme.
The manner in which the Home Ministry chooses to withdraw cases against its people suggests that either it itself does not have any faith in the judicial system, or it is harbouring killers. If it did, and the accused in these cases were truly innocent, then surely it could let a trial run its course and see the accused redeemed before the law and the country through full proceedings. Instead, by acquitting them itself it is sending a message to the country that the courts cannot be trusted to make a reliable decision. The only other conclusion that can be reached about this behaviour is that the accused persons in these cases were in fact guilty and the purpose of withdrawing charges against them was to free them from legitimate punishment. The message sent in this case is that anyone with ruling party connections is guaranteed impunity. In either case, what expectations can anyone else have whose interests come before a judge?
The same concerns arise with regards to the police and public prosecutors. All of the accused were charged following criminal investigations. Were the police investigators also politically motivated? Can their investigations be trusted? If the Home Ministry is so confident that the charges were brought without any basis, what action will now be taken regarding those who carried out the investigations? And what can be said of the public prosecution each time a case such as this is withdrawn, other than that it is an open humiliation of its role and personnel? Again, the ordinary person will be forgiven for lacking confidence in these institutions when they are rubbished by the government itself.
It takes considerable time and money for an ordinary person to get a case lodged in a court. One reason for this is to prevent frivolous complaints. In Bangladesh, it takes relatively more time and money than in other countries. The families of victims felt that there were charges to be answered against those accused who have now been acquitted by the Home Ministry. They have seen their time and money wasted due to the politicised condition of the country’s courts. They may now themselves be subjected to attacks for having filed their complaints. Frustrated and hounded, they are left with less and less hope for justice each passing day.
The notion of independent courts has been all but lost to the people of Bangladesh. There is in its stead the notion of courts as an asset of the state, and specifically, whichever party is in power at the time. Faith in the system will only be restored over time if a concerted effort is made to separate the courts from the Home Ministry, and so, from the clutches of the political parties. It is for this reason that the Asian Human Rights Commission reiterates the recommendations made by the Asian Legal Resource Centre in its report, that the judiciary in Bangladesh must be completely detached from the executive, as already required by both domestic and international law, and public prosecutors must be removed from political control, through the establishing of an independent prosecution department.
The Asian Human Rights Commission also makes a special call to all legal professionals and concerned persons in Bangladesh: speak out. Demand that governmental interventions into the judicial process end. Do this not only for your own credibility but for the people of Bangladesh, and their dwindling hopes for their human rights. Fight for courts of law, not courts of government order.
