This is justice

Page no : 2

Anil Agrawal (Retired) 20 November 2009

Please don't be disheartened. We have very good company. Read this:

Mujib’s killers face justice after 34 yrs

Bangladesh SC Sentences 5 Army Men To Death

Dhaka: The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by five former army officers convicted of killing the nation’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a coup more than 34 years ago.

    Security was tight in Dhaka with more than 12,000 extra police deployed ahead of the ruling, which paves the way for the execution of the killers, some 13 years after they first came to trial.

    Around 1,000 people squeezed inside the packed courtroom, while 10,000 more gathered outside, many breaking down in tears upon hearing the final verdict in a case that has haunted the South Asian nation for decades.

    “The Supreme Court has accepted our argument that the five men are guilty and dismissed their appeals. They are going to go to the gallows,” said chief state prosecutor Syed Anisul Haque.

    Deputy law minister Kamrul Islam said that the executions would probably be carried out in “late December or early January”.

    Sheikh Mujib, as Rahman is known, led the country to independence in 1971 after a bl**dy, nine-month war against Pakistan. He was gunned down at his home, along with his wife and three sons, in a coup on August 15, 1975. His daughters, the current PM Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana, were abroad at the time.

    “The premier cried after hearing the verdict. She was overwhelmed with emotion,” said government spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam.

    A total of 20 people, including domestic staff, were killed when army officers stormed Sheikh Mujib’s house.

    One of the state lawyers in the case, Fazle Noor Tapash, who lost both his parents in the killings, said: “Finally the souls of the father of the nation and those who were murdered will be able to rest in peace.”

    The case was first heard in 1996 when Hasina became premier for the first time and removed a legal barrier enacted by the post-Mujib government to protect the killers. At that time, 15 men were found guilty and sentenced to death.

    Three were acquitted in 2001. Of the remaining 12, five appealed the verdict to the SC, six are in hiding and one is believed to have died in Zimbabwe.

    The appeal argued that Sheikh Mujib’s death was part of a mutiny and the defendants should therefore have been tried in a military rather than a civilian court.

    The apex court hearing finally began last month after the politically sensitive case had spent eight years in limbo.

    Hasina lost power in 2001 to her bitter rival Khaleda Zia, under whose government the courts failed to process the appeal. Proceedings were only reactivated after Hasina regained power early this year. AFP

WHEELS OF JUSTICE

March 1971 | Sheikh Mujibur announces breakaway from East Pakistan and the establishment of Bangladesh August 1975 | Sheikh Mujibur is killed in a coup November 1998 | Dhaka court orders execution of 15 for his killing. Three later acquitted Oct 2001 | Trial halts after Khaleda Zia is elected PM August 2007 | Sheikh Mujibur’s murder case resumes

N.K.Assumi (Advocate) 21 November 2009

Thank you Anil, for posting such court proceedings in details.Bangladesh and pakistan is like a cursed kingdoms.

Anil Agrawal (Retired) 21 November 2009

Learned friends must have come across many qualities that a judge should possess. Nothing better than this exposition. Don't for a moment believe that I am say this. It is the observation of the Delhi High Court. Download file for full text.

No order of the judicial officer should give a slightest reflection of anger, insensitivity, unfairness and hastiness. Besides the above hallmarks, the most important personal qualifications required arc moral vigour, ethical firmness and imperviousness to corrupting or venal influences, humility and lack of affiliations, judicial temperament, zeal and capacity to work. Judicial temperament of a judge besides possessing qualities of honesty, integrity besides adequate knowledge of law, skill and legal soundness must also possess the qualities of compassion, fairness, diligence, decisiveness, high order of emotional stability, firmness, serenity, ability, endurance and open- mindedness totally free from any biasness, perversity and arbitrariness with the overt commitment to the sense of justice. Our system of justice depends on the faith of the citizens. Out of respect for the justice delivery system and the position of a judge in this system, judges have been accorded respect traditionally by our citizens. The Citizens in return expect their judges to decide their cases fairly and impartially with no anger or sense of any biasness or arbitrariness. I feel that the Special Judge has not done his job till the parties and counsel get a feeling of satisfaction that they have had a fair hearing of the dispute regardless of the ultimate decision of the case.

The courts arc temple of justice where there is no room to radiate vengeance. In the instant case, the Learned Special Judge unmindful of the basic philosophy of Justice Delivery System and in a spree of fury dismissed 29 cases. It is only where the complainant tries to protract the matter or adopts dilatory tactics to harass the accused the power under Section 256 Cr.P.C. should be exercised by a Judge and not out of ferocity and anger.

Attached File : 37 37 qualities of judge.pdf downloaded: 66 times