Dear friends,
We wish to share with you the following report published in New Age, a national English language daily newspaper of Bangladesh, on 1 March 2012.
The original story can be read at: http://newagebd.com/newspaper/detail.php?date=2012-03-01&nid=2466.
Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
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A Statement from the New Age, a national English language daily newspaper of Bangladesh, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission
Staff Correspondent
The Asian Human Rights Commission on Wednesday accused the Bangladesh president of ‘misusing constitutional texts’ to fit the requirements of the ruling political regime and said that the presidential clemency must not be a political game.
The Hong Kong-based human rights organisation said this in a statement on its web site (http://www.humanrights.asia) expressing its concerns about the presidential clemency given to AHM Biplob, son of a ruling Awami League leader.
The commission also termed the presidential clemency a ‘scandal.’ It said, ‘The president misusing the constitutional texts is a scandal.’
‘The president of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Md Zillur Rahman has once again exercised his power of clemency. This time his office has commuted the sentence of a convict formerly given a life sentence to that of a 10 years’ imprisonment,’ the statement reads.
It said, ‘The president can exercise this constitutional power. But, as a matter of fact, Zillur Rahman as the president of the country is just playing the same cards as his predecessors had and his successors would, with no sense of justice or humanity, help the associates of his political party.’
‘The president is exercising his official prerogative to fit the requirements of the ruling political regime,’ it alleged.
The commission was surprised that the same person had received two commutations in a row. He belongs to the ruling political regime and is alleged to be a ‘thug who controls “political business” for the Bangladesh Awami League, including murder.’
It said, ‘The authorities have not yet revealed what is the normative principle or assessment based on justice that is followed by the office of the president in granting clemency in Bangladesh.’
The commission also held the prime minister responsible for the presidential clemency. ‘A prime minister, who requires a president to do so, is equally responsible for the consequences.’
‘Is there a standard in compliance with the purpose of justice that compels the office of the president to exercise an extraordinary power as it is doing in granting clemency that is applicable in the country?’
‘What has made Pakistan today what it is from which Bangladesh rightfully wrestled its independence is also similar misuse of presidential authority. In that country it was more at the whims of the military than any political party,’ the commission said. ‘There is no guarantee that the military in Bangladesh would not learn bad lessons from its distant neighbour.’
According to the information received, Biplob was convicted in the case of murdering a lawyer, whose body was cut into pieces and thrown into river. The sessions court awarded him the death penalty for the murder in his absence. He was further convicted for the murder of two other persons on separate occasions. He committed the crimes in 2000 and 2001 when the Bangladesh Awami League was in power. The High Court held the judgement of the courts of sessions in the case of murdering the lawyer but remitted the death penalties of two cases to life imprisonments. Following applications from Biplob’s mother, the president pardoned Biplob in the murder case of the lawyer in July 2011 and, now, remitted the two other life imprisonments to 10 years’ imprisonments, the statement said.
‘As it has happened in this case, the presidential clemency trashes the very right to know the truth of the victims who are either murdered disappeared without a trace or had to put up with other physical or mental injuries when all of sudden the government withdraws prosecution of criminal cases on the excuses that such prosecution was initiated on pure political motives.’
‘Unfortunately, the direct casualty of this despicable situation in Bangladesh is the very notion of justice, the foundation upon which the concept of democracy is built. The question is how far can the country and its people ignore the alarming reality that these scandals are eroding the foundation of the country itself?’ the statement said.
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