Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged the government to immediately stop mass trials of the alleged mutineers of the Bangladesh Rifles, now renamed Border Guard Bangladesh, on February 25-26, 2009 to ensure fair trial.
The US-based rights watchdog in a statement said that those responsible for killing 75 people during the February 2009 mutiny by the border guard should be held accountable and the the courts must meet international fair trial standards.
The rights organisation expressed concern at the mass trial completed on June 27, 2011, in which 666 members of the 24th Border Guard Battalion were tried by a BGB tribunal, a ‘military court.
All but nine were found guilty and sentenced to terms ranging from four months to seven years in prison.
‘It is impossible to try hundreds of people at the same time and expect anything resembling a fair trial,’ said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
‘The massacre shocked Bangladesh, but each of the accused should only be found guilty if the government provides specific evidence against them,’ he added.
On February 25-26, 2009, members of the paramilitary force had staged a rebellion that killed 75 people, including 57 officers from the army.
The accused have been held and prosecuted in violation of Bangladesh’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Many were detained without charge for several months, said Adams.
He further alleged that the government did not produce individualised evidence against each detainee while all the 6,000 accused faced trials before special BDR tribunals created after the massacre.
Some 847 of the accused also face charges under the Bangladesh criminal code, some of which carry death penalty, he pointed out.
The rights group documented the deaths of some of the accused in custody in the first few months after the mutiny.
The detainees’ lack of access to counsel remains a serious concern, said HRW.
From the time they were arrested in February 2009 until December 2010, the accused in the mutiny cases were not allowed to consult with their lawyers.
Since then, they have been allowed a 20-minute consultation at the beginning and end of each court day and a 30-minute consultation in between.
Many of the accused in both the military and civilian cases have no legal counsel, in some cases for financial reasons and in others for lack of information.
Lawyers involved in the cases have complained to the HRW that it was impossible to provide an effective defense to each accused with so many clients and so little time to talk to each accused.
The possible use of capital punishment in the upcoming criminal trial of the 847 accused heightens fair trial concerns, it said.
According to the prosecutor’s office, some defendants share their lawyers with as many as 12 others in the same case.
In addition to the concerns about time for consultations, the potential for conflict of interest is significant, as evidence that could prove one person’s innocence could indicate another’s guilt.
The rights group opposed the death penalty in all cases as a fundamentally cruel and irreversible punishment.
‘The BDR mutiny was ugly and brutal, but the current approach appears to be a witch hunt against a group rather than an attempt to identify the individuals responsible for specific crimes,’ Adams said.
‘The government should rethink its approach to make sure the masterminds and perpetrators of serious offenses are brought to fair trial, but end the prosecutions of the rank-and-file who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ said the Asia director of HRW.
-With New Age input
