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A State of Emergency, which was proclaimed by the President of Bangladesh on January 11, 2007, has been prolonged for more than 13 months without any justification.

Over 250,000 have been arbitrarily arrested and many such detainees have been tortured during this time.

Amendments The military-backed interim government of Bangladesh has made amendments to the Emergency Powers Rules-2007, adding clauses, including in Rule 18A (1), which now states that, regardless of whatever provisions exist in other laws or in the rules in question, the government or the Anti-Corruption Commission may withdraw any cases from any Sessions Court, Magistrate Court, etc.

Furthermore, Rule 18A (2) adds that the subsequent trial of any case that has been transferred under sub-section (1) shall be conducted under the Emergency Powers Rules and the Criminal Law Amendment Act-1958.

Rule 18B (2) states that and Special Judge will have the authority to try any cases concerning all crimes under the Rules and during the State of Emergency, and that Special Judges' Courts will have territorial jurisdiction over all of Bangladesh.

Rule 10 (2), which states that all crimes committed under this law shall be cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable, is a particularly worrying addition, as is Section 6 (1) of the Emergency Powers Ordinance-2007, which provides blanket impunity for all actions to State actors.

In making these amendments, the military-backed interim government has effectively bypassed the regular courts and ensured that Special Judges' Courts, under the control of specially appointed judges, are able to take over any and all cases of alleged corruption.

This has guaranteed that the people that are being targeted by the government can be convicted under the arbitrary sections of the Emergency Powers Rules during the State of Emergency.

No fair trial

Special Judges' Courts have now even been established in dormitories located in the national parliament in order to try politicians that the government wants to expel from the political arena.

Charges of corruption while they were in government are being brought against such persons. Many of the politicians who have been collaborating with the present government are not being subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention and corruption charges.

Access to these Special Judges' Courts is restricted for common citizens by the government. The detained politicians and business persons, including two former prime ministers, several former cabinet ministers and members of parliament, allege that the government has been denying them access to lawyers and conducting in-camera trials in these special courts, which violate their right to a fair trial.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, for example, who has cases lodged against her by the government, has been denied access to lawyers while in detention.

Rule 21A (1) states that the government is entitled to introduce any kind of administrative measures to assist inquiries, investigations, trials and any other actions it undertakes concerning crimes under these Rules.

This carte blanche has enabled the authorities to carry out widespread and arbitrary actions against the country and its citizens, notably arbitrary arrest and detentions. These have been carried out in conjunction with Rule 16 (2), which allows the law and order enforcement forces to arrest any person without a warrant and then implicate them using fabricated charges while they are in detention.

This clause is used systematically now by law-enforcers and the administration to harass people. Whenever and wherever in the country a complaint is registered with the police, they now add Rule 16 (2) by default to the complaint, meaning that the alleged accused has breached the Emergency Powers Rules-2007.

It is impossible to argue that all things that happen in Bangladesh are related to the State of emergency and this is being used simply to create greater fear for the accused and to give the authorities unjustifiable powers over these persons.

All the aforesaid clauses of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007 are absolutely contradictory to the provisions of the country's Constitution, especially the provisions that enshrine fundamental rights.

Documenting arrests The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has documented numerous cases of arbitrary arrest, often carried out on a scale that is difficult to imagine in many other countries.

Such arrests are frequently followed by arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, torture and the fabrication of charges against those arrested.

Persons who are wealthy enough to afford the expensive help of lawyers in the Supreme Court are able to achieve some temporary remedies, but the vast majority of the hundreds that have been arrested, detained and tortured, have no avenues to seek remedies from the State at this time and the print and electronic media are under direct and indirect censorship under the State of Emergency.

It is worth noting that courts in Bangladesh are in general incapable of ensuring fair trials, and are a source of fear rather than succour for the country’s citizens.

Since the proclamation of the State of Emergency over 150 detention orders have been declared illegal by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The members of this body are nearly all either top politicians or business people, with only a few members being professionals.

Given that there have been around 250,000 people arbitrarily arrested during the last 13 months, the fact that there have been only just over 150 habeas corpus challenges in the Supreme Court indicates how out of reach such actions are for the majority of persons.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed 27 orders that the High Court Division had declared 'illegal' on March 27, 2007.

As of the second week of February 2008, 113 writ petitions relating to detention orders imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs remained pending before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

One of the victims of arbitrary detention, Abdul Qayum Khan, was an elected commissioner of the Dhaka City Corporation. He was detained in prison from January 12, 2007 to January 10, 2008. After having granted bail by a High Court Bench, he was re-arrested by the police at the gate of the prison as he was being released.

He was placed under preventive detention on January 24, 2008 for another month. On February 8, 2008, he died in the custody of the Dhaka Central Jail, allegedly as the result of a lack of medical treatment for the serious illness he had suffered during his prolonged detention in the unhygienic conditions of the prison.

Source: The South Asian