Govt mulls relaxing sentence if criminals confess guilt

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The government is pondering about enacting a new law that would relax the terms of punishment for any accused who confesses his or her offence before the court voluntarily.

Plea bargain, an agreement in a crimial case where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest in exchange for reduced punishment, would cut down the time and expenses for disposal of a case, Law and Information Adviser Mainul Hosein said yesterday.

“There’ll be no appeal in such cases since the accused confess to their crime willingly… the accused doesn’t have to pay for lawyer and the government also need not spend much,” the law adviser said.

There is such law in many developed countries, he observed adding that Bangladesh should have introduced the law much earlier.

While talking with the reporters at information ministry, Mainul said that the government is contemplating enactment of the law, but he did not elaborate further.

On the latest amendment to a provision of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) 2007 that allowed the co-accused in corruption cases to seek bail, the law adviser said that the step was taken on humanitarian grounds.

“We earlier introduced the provision of not granting bail in order to dispose the cases in shortest possible time. We admit it was a strict law,” Mainul said.

Considering that the families of the arrested accused were on the verge of destruction, the government took the step in allowing bail to the co-accused, he added.

Now the co-accused including wife, child under 18 years, unmarried daughter, mother, mother-in-law and sister of the main accused can seek bail before the trial court.

In such instances, the court or tribunal concerned can exercise its power to grant bail by explaining appropriate reasons in writing.

The co-accused who have already been convicted will be able to appeal in the High Court from now on.

“Now that the amendment has been done, the High Court, dealing such petitions, does not need to worry about any barriers,” Mainul said adding that they are happy to bring such an amendment.

The latest amendment of the Emergency Power Rules 2007 empowers the government or the Anti-Corruption Commission to transfer any scheduled criminal case under the EPR from courts of Sessions Judge, Magistrate or Special Tribunal to the Special Judge’s court.

It also allows the government to introduce any administrative measure by gazette notification in aid of inquiry of any offence, investigation, trial or other functions.

A gazette notification on the amendment was published on Monday night, which will take retrospective effect from January 12, 2007.

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