Our president is a rubber stamping yes man of the Grand Nethri. He represents physically the moral stature of our political system.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bdmailer@...> wrote:
>
> Some rule, some law !
>
> Shahedul Anam Khan
>
> *Justice cannot be tampered with*
>
> It does not surprise me at all to come across people letting out sighs of
> helplessness at the way certain legal matters have been handled of late. So
> much for the rule of law in Bangladesh, they say, more in a hapless rather
> than accusatory tone. And one can hardly disagree.
>
> The causes of their outbursts relate to the case of murder of one Ibrahim
> and the presidential pardon to 20 murder convicts a few days before Eid.
>
> As for the first, the case is under investigation, and one should not
> comment on the substance. But what has caused public consternation are the
> process of investigation and the contradictory statements emanating from
> people in high positions; and all because the person that happens to be at
> the centre of the issue happens also to be an AL MP. The matter has assumed
> a murky character because of the degree of opacity that has come to be
> associated with it.
>
> The police are acting very shy, almost to the point of being apologetic when
> it comes to the question of Mr. Nurunnabi Choudhury Shaon, the said MP. What
> is most surprising is that the police on the very first day of investigation
> had pronounced the "not-guilty" verdict in his favour. Whether the police
> can make such pronouncements before completing the investigation is a
> question that assails our mind.
>
> A month has elapsed since the murder but Shaon is yet to be questioned. And
> reportedly too, the police are deeply engrossed in contemplation as to
> whether the pistol, the murder weapon, which happens to belong to the MP,
> should be seized or not. One finds it difficult to believe that the police
> are still not decided about one of the most important material evidence in
> the case. In the backdrop of the clean chit given by the police, the
> statement of the state minister for law that the MP is liable for arrest
> under the Arms Act, has been contradicted by the police. Whose words do we
> take as correct?
>
> Without attempting to pass a value judgment on the case, or pointing fingers
> at anybody, one cannot help wondering whether we should let our political
> future rest on people who cannot even assure the safe custody of their
> personal weapons. Can we trust a person who leaves his pistol in his car
> unattended? By the way, it is the same person whose name was deleted
> recently from the list of accused in the Malibagh murder case.
>
> The other matter relates to the pardon granted to 20 persons under sentence
> of death. Nobody questions the president's prerogative to mercy given him by
> the constitution. And it is not the first time that that prerogative has
> been exercised.
>
> During the erstwhile 4-Party Alliance rule a person sentenced to death on
> charge of murder was granted pardon by the president, and that was severely
> criticised by the AL. President's prerogative to mercy has also been
> exercised by the current regime in the case of the son of the deputy leader
> of the House. But the Grand Alliance government has gone one up in that
> while the former had surrendered to the court and then sought mercy, in the
> latter case the convict was granted pardon while still a fugitive -- in
> violation of the law.
>
> The Gama murder case is unique on several counts. Hardly have we seen so
> many given the death sentence in a murder case, and hardly have we seen the
> presidential prerogative invoked before the end of the trial process. For
> all that we know all the convicted persons could have been victims of a
> frame up. But we have no way now of ascertaining that since the trial
> process has been brought to an abrupt halt. And that has raised many
> eyebrows.
>
> The question is why did the Ministry of Law feel it necessary to initiate
> mercy petition while the case was in the High Court? Does it display lack of
> confidence in the higher judiciary, or was it anticipated that the sentences
> would be upheld by the appellate court?
>
> I am personally against capital punishment and certainly believe in the
> maxim that it is better to err on the right side of judgment, that it is
> better to have 20 accused go free rather than one innocent punished wrongly;
> but everything must be done through the legal process. And when one sees
> some of the death-row prisoners emerging from the jail gate with pedestal
> fan and TV antennae in hand one is kept wondering at the way rules have been
> defiled.
>
> Regrettably, this has been a subversion of the judicial process, an
> expression of no-confidence on the judiciary. And it has dragged the
> President's Office in the shoddy process. While the president can do little
> but to sign on the dotted line, one would have hoped, being a lawyer
> himself, that he would have combined the dignity of his office and the
> wisdom of his legal mind and sent it back to the ministry for
> reconsideration.
>
> It is well to keep in mind what Aristotle said about the fate of man when
> separated from law and justice.
>
> Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd) is Editor, Defence & Strategic
> Affairs, The Daily Star
>
> http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=154538
>
------------------------------------
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