Bangladesh News

Payam Akhavan, the Canadian counsel for Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, yesterday urged the government to release Hasina immediately to “allow justice to prevail over political expedience”.

He said the charges brought against her have no merit and so should be thrown out.

“If the judiciary is allowed to fulfil its function without interference, if the sanctity of its independence is respected and upheld, I’m confident Sheikh Hasina will be acquitted on all charges,” said Akhavan, also a teacher of law at McGill University in Montreal.

He was speaking at a press conference at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel just before his departure after a five-day stay in Dhaka. He said he hopes the caretaker government would not interfere in the judicial process so that all citizens could regard such trials as fair and transparent rather than political instruments.

He said, “I had reviewed the file of the Azam Chowdhury case and found the prosecution case to be wholly without merit.”

Akhavan was present during the trial proceedings at the special court on January 30 and talked to detained Hasina.

He said Azam had never accused the former prime minister in his deposition. Despite the complainant’s clear statement, the prosecutor maintained that Azam had implicated her and for one moment, it seemed as if the prosecutor, not Azam, was the witness.

He said the sole basis of imputing a crime to Hasina was Sheikh Selim’s confessional statement “signed by force by resorting to electric shock, depriving him of sleep and food for 48 hours and threatening him with murder”.

He said the “willingness to persist with additional charges by a similarly questionable character only reinforces the impression that the objective of her relentless prosecution is her removal from political life rather than any consideration for justice”.

On the Anti-Corruption Commission’s charges against Hasina of receiving kickbacks from the Summit Group in return for awarding them work, he said the group has donated a piece of land to Bangabandhu Memorial Trust. “Where’s the crime in the donation? It was not a payment for her personal benefit,” he added.

“If the prosecution is not influenced and pressured into getting a conviction, Sheikh Hasina will be acquitted and released hopefully tomorrow,” continued Akhavan, who served as a legal adviser to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

He said he would continue his engagement in seeking release of Hasina. He has no political agenda beyond asking that her client’s rights to a fair trial and fundamental freedoms be respected in accordance with both the country’s constitution and obligations under the UN human rights convention.

“I’m not asking you to vote for Awami League, BNP or Jamaat, or any other political party,” he added.

The Iran-born Canadian lawyer, who also attended a session of the High Court in Dhaka, said, “I am merely expressing the view that the judiciary must remain independent and above political interests, not least in a delicate transitional period leading to free and fair elections.

“The longer the case is dragged on, more it tarnishes the image of otherwise a very strong judiciary.”

He observed that such manipulation of the judicial process would create the public perception that “it’s power and not justice that is at the core of corruption trial”.

Mentioning his meeting Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed at the WEF conference in Davos, he said the imprisonment and prosecution of Hasina “on manifestly unfounded charges of misconduct is a blemish on otherwise commendable efforts to lead Bangladesh to free and fair elections”.

The jurist said it is for the people of Bangladesh to decide who their leaders are and none should be excluded from the selection process for alleged misconduct except in accordance with guarantees of due process and the rule of law.

He said the trial of Hasina falls far short of human rights standards and is by no means isolated or unprecedented.

Terming the makeshift court a “semi-camera court”, he asked the government to allow public access to the trial.

He said, “This is a semi-camera court in the sense that a few people were allowed to witness the trial. Even the court was smaller. Hundreds of people, who were barred by the police, have the right to witness the trial.”

He lauded the anti-corruption campaign by the military-backed caretaker administration and said there must be a policy of zero tolerance for corruption.

“A campaign against corruption is effective only if there is no doubt about its fairness and impartiality,” he noted, adding the message must be that the function of criminal justice will not be perverted or usurped to settle political score.

“I’m confident and hopeful the impressive progress made by the caretaker government will not be derailed by short term political gains at a time when magnanimous and visionary leadership is the precondition for national unity and reconciliation,” he said.

Replying to a query, the jurist said he would share his experience and documents with the UN human rights committee to ensure that Hasina’s fundamental human rights are respected in accordance with international law.

“A travesty of justice is surely not a precedent that will usher in a new era of transparency and accountability for abuses of power,” he said adding that he hopes to come back again.