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Even concerned professionals do not have full information about this project, due to the government's policy of withholding information, yet the media have published some of the main features of the "Truth Commission." As information trickles out, people of various positions in society have begun expressing their dismay over the controversial actions of the rulers.
The Truth Commission, according to the ordinance, would exist for five months, but proceedings undertaken during its tenure would continue until cases were completed. It would be headed by a retired chief justice or a judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, with two additional persons as commissioners – not below the rank of major general of the armed forces or a retired secretary to the government or an eminent citizen.
Persons who voluntarily admit to embezzling funds or improperly acquiring wealth will be exempted from prosecution and imprisonment subject to surrendering the property or money to the state exchequer. Such persons must submit applications for mercy to the commission in a prescribed form, detailing their movable and immovable properties. Persons already having been charged in corruption cases are not entitled to this benefit.
The commission is authorized to summon anyone it deems corrupt and will have the authority to confiscate illegal assets. The commission will not sentence anyone who discloses his graft to a prison term. However, violation of its directives will constitute an offence punishable by imprisonment for a maximum of five years.
The commission will hear cases within 14 days of submission and deliver its verdict in 30 days. It is mandatory for the executive and the judiciary to provide assistance to the commission as it requires, and this ordinance will prevail over other laws of the land. The commission has the right to keep secret information disclosed by a person, if it so decides.
Hassan Arif, adviser to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, told the media that the commission would consider the cases of businessmen with leniency, considering their contribution to the national economy. He said that people suspected of corruption, having been detained but not yet convicted and on the list of the Anti-Corruption Commission, would be able to apply to the Truth Commission. Anyone convicted by the commission would not be able to run for election for five years.
The chief adviser's press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, told the media that "business leaders and others can avoid imprisonment.” He added that those who give money to the government would qualify for leniency and would not face obstacles in running for election.
Government officials have explained that the commission is an alternative arrangement to the judiciary in order to quickly dispose of graft cases and reduce the burden of the state in conducting a massive anti-corruption drive across the country.
The intention of the government is truly arbitrary regarding the creation of the so-called Truth and Accountability Commission, while the commission itself is extra-constitutional by nature. The country's Constitution clearly enshrines the people's right to equal treatment before the law, but the commission will give amnesty to some people according to the whim of the military-controlled government, while many others have already been convicted and sentenced to years or decades in prison for committing the same crime.
While innumerable people have been detained and spent time in prison for alleged crimes, the crimes of selected people will be cleared up within 30 days without any suffering due to their "donation" to the government from their looted wealth!
If the Truth Commission is a quasi-judicial body, why will it be mandatory for the judiciary to provide assistance to this commission? Where is the independence of the judiciary and why will the judiciary have to provide "required assistance" to an arbitrary body that will exist just five months? On what grounds and for whose benefit will the commission suppress the disclosed information from the public?
The military-controlled rulers will grant leniency considering the "contribution of the businessmen to the national economy." Why? What does a thief contribute but plundering people's properties? The corrupt businessmen, instead of paying penalties for exploiting their innocent countrymen and abusing the rule of law, will be rewarded!
The creation of such an extra-constitutional body only aids the implementation of the pre-designed election roadmap of the military-controlled government. The inception of the Truth and Accountability Commission only emphasizes the high degree of tyranny the people of Bangladesh have been confronting.
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong, working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and was engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
