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Among these incidents, the decision to free Sheikh Hasina by the military-controlled government has been the talk of the country. As the chief prosecution lawyer Sharfuddin Ahmed Mukul told reporters, "The government has decided to give her an opportunity to go abroad for treatment. She will be released through an administrative order."
Local media reports that all procedures for releasing Hasina had been finalized a few days before her release. The government was only waiting to have Hasina sign a three-page "secret deal," which was reportedly completed in the evening on Monday, June 9. The deal involves assurances from Hasina’s party, the Awami League, that it will participate in the "dialogue" with the government and in the upcoming "election" as well. An official order to be issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs is likely, asking prison authorities to release Sheikh at any time from Tuesday.
Earlier, judges from different special tribunals had consecutively "removed all legal barriers to her departure by accepting her petitions for staying absent at court proceedings in four separate cases against her" over the last few days. However, no court has so far granted bail to her or acquitted her of corruption charges filed by the government.
These reports are reminiscent of Hasina's arrest on July 16, 2007, when she was picked up by military-dominated law-enforcement agents without an arrest warrant. The media on the following day quoted her lawyers, saying the former prime minister was not shown any arrest warrant although there were corruption charges and a murder case against her.
The whole series of events – the arrest of Hasina and the preparations to free her from the makeshift-prison – show the supremacy of military power over the courts.
The arbitrary mass arrests over the past two weeks have now been overshadowed by the Hasina release issue. The arrests of some 20,000 people within 11 days, from May 28 to June 9, represent the terrible abuse of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007. Who will determine the fates of the innumerable innocent persons in prison for indefinite periods of time, when the courts cannot grant bail under the emergency laws?
Reports reveal the detainees include grassroots political activists who are supposed to participate in the upcoming election campaigns for their respective parties. The government has initiated this crackdown with a view to creating panic among people so that nobody joins any kind of protest against the misdeeds of the military-controlled government.
The national budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year was announced Monday by the government adviser to the Ministry of Finance. The government allocated BDT 64.08 billion (US$934 million) for defense, which is the highest in the history of Bangladesh and 10 billion more than the current fiscal year of 2007 and 2008.
The same budget reportedly allocates only 207.6 million (US$3 million) for the Anti-Corruption Commission – reducing it by 104.8 million from the current fiscal year – although the coup was staged under the pretext of fighting corruption in the country.
The money allocated for the Supreme Court is only BDT 291.8 million (US$4.25 million) in the proposed budget. Besides, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, which is the controlling authority of judicial institutions such as the prosecution and training institutions for judges, is supposed to receive BDT 3.83 billion (US$55.88 million) in the proposed budget.
The government, which has been humming the lullaby of establishing rule of law and fighting corruption in the country, has come up with its financial policy of entertaining the armed forces' demands instead of supporting the judiciary and the corruption-fighters. Comparing the allocations for the defense, judiciary and anti-corruption commission reveals the level of commitment the government has toward those institutions, as well as the interests of the government itself.
The military has started embezzling public funds in a unique way, legitimatized under the budget, while thousands of family members of the innocent poor detainees spend their nights facing hunger and worry. All of these incidents portray the lawlessness and deceitful character of the military-controlled government.
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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.)
