Oct. 19
BANGLADESH:
To hang or not to hang----5 top lawyers assail death penalty; A former
Chief Justice defends capital punishment
5 eminent lawyers have expressed strong disapproval of capital punishment
in Bangladesh. Talking to The Independent they were unanimous in their
opposition to the death penalty. Pointing to the ongoing global movement
against capital punishment and also bringing to the fore both legal and
humanitarian issues involved in it, they have observed that capital
punishment to the convicts cannot reduce grave crimes in society.
The lawyers are Dr. Kamal Hossain, Dr. M. Zahir, Advocate Anisul Huq,
Barrister Tania Amir and Advocate Shafiuddin Bhuiyan.
On the other hand, former Chief Justice Mustafa Kamal has advocated death
penalty in order to cleanse society of the perpetrators of hideous crimes.
As he thinks, the number of court orders to carry out capital punishment
is very poor compared to crimes committed in the country.
Constitution expert and eminent lawyer Dr Kamal Hossain told The
Independent that an increase in the number of death sentences had failed
to arrest the spate of crimes and improve law and order in the country.
He said the politicisation process of the government was weakening the law
enforcing agencies, and as a result the agencies concerned couldnt fairly
investigate crimes of a grave nature.
"A fundamental reform should be brought about in the whole system of the
administration and the judiciary to effectively implement the laws. The
laws also should be impartially exercised to ensure justice," he told The
Independent adding that the law and order scenario in Bangladesh was
awful.
Dr Kamal observed that justice to people was ensured in countries, where
the laws are properly implemented, politicisation doesnt have a place and
the governments dont interfere in the judiciary.
He said that suspects are being killed when the members of the law
enforcing agencies go to arrest them, which is horrifying.
"The crisis in the law and order has been created because the judiciary
has not been separated from the executive and the law enforcing agencies
have been weakened by politicisation," he added.
Dr M Zahir, a senior lawyer and also a constitution expert, said that the
convention of capital punishment to the convicted persons must be banned.
"I am always against the capital punishment on principle and I oppose the
convention of hanging as punishment," he said adding, "I dont want to say
more than this".
Advocate Anisul Huq said that a worldwide movement had long been launched
demanding an end to the convention of hanging.
He said quoting the observation of a judgement passed by the Indian
Supreme Court in 1994 that the hanging of the convicts was of no use in
the present context.
He, however, said that this concept was not applicable to all countries
and all societies.
Advocate Anisul Huq said that the courts should be very cautious in
delivering judgement in cases regarding capital punishment to the
convicts.
"Capital punishment should be given to the convicts when the allegations
against them are proved beyond doubt," he added.
Barrister Tania Amir was opposed to the system of hanging convicts for 2
reasons: 1 was humanitarian and the other legal.
She said bringing an end to a life by hanging was painful from
humanitarian point of view.
"We have seen that in some countries, including Britain and the USA the
number of capital punishment has dropped," Barrister Tania said.
She added that questions had been raised on the neutrality of the lower
courts since the government was interfering in the function of those
courts.
"The lower courts are delivering the judgements of capital punishments,
but most of those orders are changed by the Supreme Court," Barrister
Tania said.
Advocate Shafiuddin Bhuiyan said that the convicted persons couldnt be
corrected if they were hanged as per the court orders.
"Human beings can be convicted in various ways after being born. They can
commit offences for a number of causes. Many things are responsible for
making them offenders. They should be given the chance to mend their ways
in their lifetime," he said.
In a sharp contrast to the above views, former Chief Justice Mustafa Kamal
said, "If the number of the orders of capital punishment to criminals were
ten to 12 times the present number, the proportion would be balanced in
comparison to the number of the crimes being committed," he told The
Independent.
Asked about the large numbers of death sentence verdicts of the court
Justice Mustafa Kamal replied by quoting an English proverb, "Desperate
situation calls for desperate measures".
He said killings are nowadays taking place in various ways and various
situations for both petty and big reasons.
He said the statistics, which shows that 377 orders of the courts for
hanging had been executed within 32 years and more than 550 convicted
persons were in 53 condemned cells, was very poor in comparison to the
number of killings at present.
The former Chief Justice said that the authorities of some developed
countries in which the convention of capital punishment to the convicts
had been withdrawn could arrest the killers or murderers within one or one
and half hours after the crime.
Justice Mustafa Kamal said that the psychychiatrists in the developed
countries are trying to discover the ways of bringing the criminals out of
the crime worlds by launching new researches on the minds of the
criminals.
He said Bangladesh could not reach such a level for conducting such
researches like the western countries till today.
"In the decade of the seventies the Indian government killed tens of
thousands of leaders, workers and supporters of the Naksal movement to
prevent it and most of the people were brilliant students, but no trial
was made at that time," he said putting a question: where were the rule of
law, the Constitution of India, the human rights organisations like the
Amnesty International at that time?
He added that even in Bangladesh immediately after its independence a
number of culprits who created anarchy in the country in various ways were
annihilated in Gazipur and Joydevpur areas by a section of law enforcing
agencies, and no trial was made then.
Mustafa Kamal said, " People are always in panic and even we cannot think
of our natural deaths due to the unlimited lawlessness in society".
"Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are washing our brains in the
name of human rights. The USA is violating human rights by introducing
Patriot Act-2001 in their own country," he said adding that under the
Patriot Act-2001 the American police can arrest and even kill any American
citizen without informing his or her family members.
"Why should we comply with their advice?" he said caustically.
(source: Ashutosh Sarkar, The Independent)
