610 BNP-Jamaat men jailed in one month
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the backlog of cases is supposed to be cleared within a few years.
“Were the people convicted allowed to defend themselves or were the witness statements cross-examined before the sentences were handed down? Dead people have even reportedly been made accused and convicted in cases. I don’t know whether an Aladdin’s lamp is resolving these cases.”
Senior SC lawyer and BNP Joint Secretary AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon told this correspondent the sentencing and conviction of the BNP leaders and activists just ahead of the upcoming polls is sending a wrong message to the people regarding the judiciary, particularly the lower courts.
“I’m requesting the chief justice to look into whether the law ministry is controlling the activities of the courts concerned.”
Last month, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters that the government does not interfere in the trial proceedings of cases against accused BNP men.
“The judiciary is completely independent,” he said.
YESTERDAY’S IMPRISONMENT
Of the 610 convicted over last one month, 73 were convicted just yesterday. They were jailed for political violence in Dhaka’s Bangshal, Kalabagan and Kotwali areas between November 2013 and September 2018.
The charges were as before: setting fire to vehicles, gathering illegally, rioting, assaulting police and obstructing them from discharging duties.
In a case filed with Bangshal Police Station in September 2018, 25 leaders and activists of the BNP and its front organisations were each given three years’ rigorous imprisonment by a Dhaka court yesterday.
No convicts were present in the courtroom when Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Sheikh Sadi delivered the verdict.
Four prosecution witnesses testified during the trial.
According to the case documents, a large number of activists of BNP and its front organisations illegally gathered in front of Ahmed Bawani School around 4:45pm on September 6, 2018, ahead of a rally demanding release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia. They vandalised vehicles, ransacked shops and created anarchy.
Another Dhaka Court yesterday sentenced 40 BNP activists to one and a half years’ imprisonment over political violence in Kalabagan in November 2013.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ali Haider also acquitted 26 other accused as the charges against them were not proven. Six prosecution witnesses testified.
According to the case statement, some 50 to 60 BNP-Jamaat leaders and activists on September 18, 2013, threw brickbats at police and hurled three to four crude bombs during an 18-party alliance programme. They obstructed on-duty police from discharging their duties there as well.
Also yesterday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury sentenced eight BNP members to one and half years’ imprisonment over political violence in Kotwali in January 2015.
The magistrate also acquitted 12 others, while four witnesses gave their statements before the court.
According to the case statements, on January 10, 2015, the accused illegally gathered in Babubazar Mazar area in Kotwali and torched a covered van during a blockade called by a BNP-led 20-party alliance.