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According to the child, she was raped by her employer on June 29, and for three consecutive days following. Afterward the girl was rescued by neighbors and taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition. On July 3, her mother lodged a rape case against Baker at the Shyampur Police Station.
The case was placed before the Dhaka-5 Special Tribunal for the Prevention of Repression against Women and Children on Sept. 25, after the police finished their investigation and brought the charge of rape against the accused. Baker managed to get bail from the court on Sept. 29. He then boasted before the victim's father that the judge of the special tribunal, Mohammed Samsul Haque, had granted him bail after receiving a bribe of 200,000 taka (about US$2,900).
This issue became public when the victim's father made a written complaint on Oct. 7 to a judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Mohammed Anwarul Haque, who was officially assigned to inspect and observe the conditions, practices and performance of the "subordinate judiciary" of Bangladesh.
Anwarul Haque reportedly ordered the officials in question to show him the case documents, and later suggested that the applicant submit another application for cancellation of the bail order given to the accused by Judge Samsul Haque.
This is one of many incidents of bribery and manipulation of judicial powers by judges in Bangladesh. Many people are not fortunate or courageous enough to meet a Supreme Court judge and submit a complaint about their suffering as a result of the "sale of justice."
Anybody who learns about this incident will wonder what happened to the judge. Even though the incident was officially reported to a Supreme Court judge and the public became aware of this incident through media reports, no investigation into this case of bribery has been reported. Instead, the authorities and professionals defend such incidents by saying it is difficult to prove that bribery occurred given the circumstances of Bangladesh, unless the one who offered the bribe, or the mediator who arranged it, confesses to a competent authority.
This incident of bribery of a judge in the rape case of a young girl is a terrible indictment of the judge and the judiciary. He abused his power by releasing the alleged rapist for a bribe; he personally made a decision about a man accused of a serious crime, despite the charges in the investigation report; he violated the ethics of his position; and last but not least, he ultimately “raped” the judiciary itself, multiplying the miseries of those seeking justice.
People from developed countries, where bribery of a judge is unthinkable, will question whether this report is fact or fiction. If it is fact, they will want to know what the authorities did to address the situation and uphold the sanctity of the judiciary. Was any action taken to punish the judge or hold anyone accountable?
Had there been such an allegation of a judge accepting a bribe in Hong Kong, for example, the people would have seen the judge's resignation on the following day, either voluntarily or by direction from the higher authorities. But in Bangladesh no such thing occurred.
There could have been a serious investigation to explore how and what really happened in this case. The lawyers could at least have felt embarrassed to bring their cases to the court of a judge facing such an allegation of corruption or manipulation.
The authorities and professionals of Bangladesh, it seems, are "noble" enough to accept, forgive and forget such crimes. In this they distinguish themselves from their counterparts in other nations, who would surely not only feel ashamed to find such manipulation and abuse of power in a judicial institution, but would take initiative to correct the abhorrent practice.
The judiciary is the last hope for those whose rights have been violated, those who are deprived of justice as a result of someone's illegal actions. If the judiciary itself, and the professionals who serve it, fail to retain the people's trust as a result of their illegitimate practices, people will increasingly distrust the judiciary, which is already in a vulnerable condition in Bangladesh.
Justice should not be treated as an item for sale. Will the Supreme Court and the Bar Council of Bangladesh do anything to ensure that injured people receive justice under a fair system? Do they not have even this much self-respect?
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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 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.)
