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  Dhaka Bangladesh An Indepth News Agency      Last Update: Monday, May 19, 2008  
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Tough anti-terrorism ordinance approved

Newstime Correspondent

The military-controlled government of Fakhruddin Ahmed has given nod to an ordinance with tougher provisions to stamp out terrorism. The council of advisers at its weekly meeting on Sunday approved the ordinance, to be promulgated shortly, to deal with acts of terrorism with an iron hand, an official spokesman told New Age after the meeting. The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, presided over the meeting attended by his cabinet colleagues and the officials concerned, said Kazi Mostaque Zahir, a spokesman for the Chief Adviser’s Office.

Rights groups and political parties fear that the new ordinance, approved without eliciting public opinion in any form, might be abused, especially for political persecution in the coming days.

But the government spokesman denied that the government had any such intentions. The previous government had initiated the process against the backdrop of rise of extremism and repeated bomb and grenade attacks on rallies and public places that killed scores of people.

The proposed law defined ‘terrorism’ from a broader spectrum making provision for capital punishment for acts of terrorism. In line with the United States’ war on terror, the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government formed a high-powered committee in 2006 asking it to prepare a draft on how to contain terrorism and terror financing. The draft could not be finalised and enact as the parliament was dissolved in October on expiry of its five-year tenure. The interim administration, in line with the international anti-terrorism conventions that Bangladesh has signed, took up the matter for discussion in February, a month after it had assumed office, and the draft was re-written.

Sources in the ministry said that the law ministry had prepared the draft afresh after reviewing few similar laws at home and abroad. It gathered experience from Explosive Act 1994, the Special Powers Act 1974, Arms Act 1872, Anti-terrorism Act 1992, Law and Order Disruption Prevention (Special Tribunal) Act 2002 and Speedy Trial Tribunal Act 2002, a law ministry official said. The ordinance defined an ‘act of terrorism’ from a broader perspective, including any act that poses a threat to the sovereignty, unity, integrity or security of Bangladesh or creates panic among the general masses or obstructs official activities.

According to the ordinance, use of bombs, dynamite or other explosives, inflammable substances, firearms, or any other chemicals in a way that may injure or kill people to create panic among the public, and damage public or private property, take any person hostage, threaten anyone with death, assault anyone physically or create panic in the general masses, or kill or hurt anyone seriously or detain or abduct a person by such acts have also been defined as act of terrorism.

The ordinance suggested speedy trial in special courts with maximum punishment of death or life term or 20 years and minimum three years’ imprisonment for the offenders in addition to financial penalty, said an official after the meeting. The law stipulates that those who finance terrorist groups, whether they are composed of local or foreign elements, will also be tried under the law. For terror financing, a convict will serve maximum 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and minimum three years with financial penalty.

The law empowered the authorities to ban any extremist group. Offences like publicity or broadcast in favour of any outlawed organisation carry a maximum sentence of seven years and minimum two years.

For sheltering a terrorist, one may be jailed for maximum five years if the prime offender is given death sentence. Asked for comments on the ordinance, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said he did not see reason for enacting such a harsh law at the moment when there was no parliament.

‘We saw such laws abused in the past’, said the WP leader adding if there was a requirement for the law the government must discuss it with all the parties concerned.

Rights watchdog Odhikar asked the government last week for eliciting public opinion before approving such ordinances. ‘Authoritarian governments abused such ordinances in the past.’

Hasina, 6 others indicted in power plant case

Newstime Correspondent

The detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and seven others were on Sunday charged with corruption in the barge-mounted power plant case. Framing the charges against the eight, M Firoz Alam, the judge of the special judge’s court 1 set up in the Jatiya Sangsad complex, posted for Wednesday the beginning of the trial in the case with recording of the deposition of prosecution witnesses. According to law, the trial in the case needs to be completed in 45 days. If the court fails to complete the trial in 45 day, it will have the scope to take 15 more days to complete the trial after recording the reasons.

Hasina, also the Awami League president, claiming herself innocent in the court said the charges against her were politically motivated and the court would need to go by ‘divine revelations.’

Hasina was charged with taking gratification of Tk 3 crore for awarding a foreign company and its local partners the contract for installation of the 100MW barge-mounted power plant in Khulna under Section 161 of the Penal Code and with criminal misconduct under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947. The offences are punishable with imprisonment for three years and seven years. Asked about the punishments in connection with the charges, the chief prosecutor, Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan Mukul, told reporters, ‘Whatever the punishment awarded to Sheikh Hasina may be, it would be the severest in the sense that the former prime minister and the chief of a major political party would be barred from contesting polls if she is convicted in the case.’ The court framed the charges rejecting the petitions filed by Hasina and former power and energy secretary Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury seeking their discharge from the case. Toufiq also pleaded not guilty and termed the prosecution a ‘litany of wilful and malicious concoction — a new episode in Hirak Rajar Deshe.’

The court also indicted six others accused in the case, now in hiding, former Power Development Board’s chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Corporation’s managing director Mohammad Aziz Khan and its director Mohammad Farid Khan, United Group chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and its director Abul Kalam Azad and Bangabandhu Memorial Museum curator Syed Siddiqur Rahman. Toufiq and the six were charged with helping Hasina in taking the gratification and committing the misconduct under Section 109 and 165A of the Penal Code. If the charges are proved, they may be given punishment similar to that for Hasina. On May 12, the High Court issued a rule, asking the Anti-Corruption Commission to explain in eight days the legality of holding the trial in the case.

After hearing a writ petition filed by Hasina, the High Court bench of Justice Iman Ali and Justice Emdadul Haque also issued the same rule to the special judge’s court 1 for its failure to complete the trial in the case in 60 days from the date of submission of the charge sheet. The High Court, however, had not stayed the trial of the case.

The court had also asked Hasina’s counsels to move the writ petition with the High Court bench of Justice MA Rashid and Justice Ashfaqul Islam on May 20, when the bench is scheduled to hear similar writ petitions filed by former deputy minister Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu and former lawmakers Mosaddak Ali and Mostafa Kamal, also known as Lotus Kamal.

The special court on Sunday summoned the plaintiff of the case, Sabbir Hasan, also a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, who lodged the case with the Tejgaon police, to appear in court on May 21 for the recording of his depositions. With Sabbir, 56 people have been named as prosecution witnesses in the case. This is the second case in which Hasina has so far been charged since the military-controlled interim government arrested her on July 16, 2007.

On January 13, Hasina was indicted in the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case filed by the East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd managing director, Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007. Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge Azizul Haque, in the makeshift courtroom on the Jatiya Sangsad complex, began the trial in the extortion case on January 30 with the deposition by the complainant, Azam. The trial was stalled after the High Court on February 6 had quashed the case.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, however, on May 8 struck down the High Court’s verdict, clearing the way for the resumption of the trial in the extortion case.

According to the charges in the power plant case, the Wartsila Power Development Ltd Consortium and its local partners, Summit Group and United Group, won the deal to set up the barge-mounted power plant when Hasina was prime minister.

Accused Aziz Khan, Farid Khan, Hasan Mahmud and Abul Kalam paid Tk 3 crore by eight cheques and pay orders to the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust to buy a two-storey building and 19.11 kathas of land at Dhanmondi for the trust. The cheques and pay orders were issued between October 7, 1997 and November 24, 1997.