Bangladesh News

The military-backed caretaker government has won all cases so far in the fast-track special courts but failed to cross the next hurdle when top graft convicts challenged the verdicts in the High Court.

Though the prosecution is happy over quick disposal of cases and the success rate it is equally disappointed with the pace appeal petitions are being handled at the HC.

The HC has received around a dozen appeals, none of which could be heard yet thanks to severe case backlog.

Even in some cases, the 90-day time stipulated for disposal of appeals has expired. Many believe trial of top graft-suspects is going to meet the same fate like thousands of other appeals pending with the HC for years.

Set up last year for quick disposal of cases, 10 special courts at the MP Hostel in National Parliament Complex received 204 corruption cases until end of June this year.

Of those, 105 cases filed against 154 people, mostly politicians and their family members, have been disposed of with verdicts in favour of the prosecution. Five co-accused in different cases could not be brought to trial due to HC stay.

As allegations against them could not be proved, 19 co-accused have been acquitted out of 149, but all main accused have been handed down punishment.

According to the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), a higher court must adjudicate any appeal against a lower court verdict in a corruption case within 90 days of filing of the appeal.

To address the problem, the government is planning to move to the Supreme Court with a request for constituting two separate benches in the HC to deal exclusively with the appeals against the verdict in special graft cases.

Contacted by The Daily Star for confirmation of the government move, Anisul Huq, lawyer for Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said he didn’t have any specific information about it, adding “I have heard about that.”

Expressing his disappointment, advocate Mosharaf Hossain Kajal, one of the prosecution lawyers in the special courts, said, “We all are proceeding with graft cases in the trial court with the spirit of quick disposal. But it appears that the same spirit is absent during dealing of the appeals.”

Surprisingly, in some cases, both the prosecution and the defence do not seem to be going for quick disposal of appeals, sources involved in the appeals say.

A number of lawyers, whose clients have already been convicted on graft charges, have admitted this as a “strategy”.

“I don’t want to move for quick disposal of the appeals as my client thinks he won’t get justice during the caretaker government rule. He wants the hearing to begin after the elections when an elected government will be in power,” a defence lawyer said.

Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokan, some of whose clients have also been convicted in graft cases, said, “Some convicts may choose this strategy. But I think the appeals against graft case verdicts are not coming in the serial for hearing due to long queue and backlog of cases.”

A prosecution lawyer said it is the responsibility of the defence to move to quicken the appeal proceedings if they feel the necessity.

So far, the HC has received more than a dozen appeals. Though half of the appeals were received over six months ago, hearing of any of them has yet to start.

Records say over 100 cases, including 25 which have been stayed by the HC, are now pending with the special courts. Some of the cases were returned to the Court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge, but a few of them were transferred to different special courts again.

The objective of the anti-corruption drive has been hampered a bit due to the HC stay on many graft cases. Otherwise, the courts could have disposed many other cases by now, a prosecution lawyer observed.

While dealing with graft cases, the prosecution enjoys some procedural facilities due to the EPR. The EPR has the provision of imposing some restrictions on the convicts like barring convicts from contesting polls.

A law, to be styled as the ‘emergency repeal act’ or ‘withdrawal of emergency act’, is going to be enacted while lifting the emergency state. This law will have some “saving clauses” to keep valid some of EPR provisions including the one barring convicts from contesting elections.

Many graft cases are now under trial with other courts across the country in parallel with the special courts.

The special courts are dealing with mostly graft cases filed by ACC and National Board of Revenue (NBR) and a few bribery cases filed by police.

A total of 168 cases filed by ACC are now pending with different courts of the country till June 15. Of them, 87 are pending in Dhaka.

Of all the graft convicts, Harris Chowdhury, political secretary of ex-premier Khaleda Zia, received highest 59 years’ jail by a Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court in Dhaka in a single case.

Harris, who is absconding, was also awarded three-year imprisonment in each of two separate cases, one filed for graft and another for possessing foreign currency illegally.

In the special courts, businessman Obaidul Karim was awarded highest jail term — lifetime, meaning 30 years — in a single graft case.

Most other convicts received 13-year imprisonment.

Of the high-profile graft-suspects, three have already been found guilty in six graft cases, so far highest in number. They are Rabeya Haider, wife of former BNP minister Shahjahan Siraj, their son Rajib Siraj and businessman Atiqullah Khan Masud who received 43, 45 and 48 years’ jail respectively.

At least 76 ex-lawmakers including ex-premiers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have been sued on graft charges.

Of the others, 43 are from BNP, 27 from the AL, three from Jamaat-e-Islami, and one each from Islami Oikya Jote and Jatiya Party (Monju).

Sixteen former lawmakers from BNP and 11 from the AL have already been convicted. Many of the convicts and accused served as ministers in the last 15 years.

Former technocrat ministers Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir from the AL, Mir Nasir Uddin from BNP and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed from Jamaat have also been convicted.

Apart from these graft cases, police, government departments and aggrieved individuals also filed cases against at least 28 BNP and four Jamaat ex-lawmakers on different criminals charges including misappropriating relief materials, extortion, violation of EPR, illegal possession of firearms and liquor and land grabbing.

Government sources say graft cases will be filed against more former MPs, while complaints against them are now under inquiry.

After the government launched anti-corruption drive and the army-led task forces started functioning, the people, who were aggrieved, started filing cases against former ministers and lawmakers on different charges.

Although some major graft cases filed by ACC, NBR and some other government departments are now being monitored by the government, other criminal cases filed by different persons are not getting proper government attention.