Finish trial of 139 prisoners by August

Amin of Segunbagicha in Dhaka was arrested on October 25, 2008, in connection with murder. He was 45 then.

He has been in jail since then, which is almost 10 years. The case against him is pending with the Jono Nirapotta Bignokari Aporadh Daman Tribunal, Dhaka, without any significant progress. 

And he is not alone. There are many others in jail who have been waiting for years for their trials to be over. 

The High Court yesterday directed courts concerned to finish proceedings of cases against 139 prisoners, who have been languishing in 68 jails across the country for more than seven years.

The HC gave the courts time until August 31.

The courts were asked to submit reports on the progress of trial proceedings to the monitoring committee of the Supreme Court, if they failed to finish the trials by that time.

The HC also ordered the investigation officers concerned to make sure witnesses are produced before the lower courts for quick disposal of the cases. The government was asked to take departmental actions against investigation officers if they failed to comply.

The HC also directed deputy commissioners and superintendents of police across the country to provide necessary assistance in finishing the trials.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim came up with the suo moto (voluntary) order after Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee's (SCLAC) panel lawyer Cumar Debul Dey prayed to the court for necessary orders so that the trials of the cases against the 139 are settled quickly.

The lawyer argued that several under-trial prisoners, who had been in jails for a long time, had been granted bail by the HC, including one person who had been in jail for 17 years.

Ripan Paul Sku, an official of the SCLAC, told The Daily Star that SCLAC prepared the case details of the 139 under-trial prisoners after examining the dockets of cases filed against 256 prisoners who have been in jails for more than seven years.

He said a number of the remaining prisoners were accused of militancy and complete information of the others could not be obtained.

On November 19 last year, the SCLAC sent a letter to the jail authorities seeking a list of the under-trial prisoners.

The jail authorities on December 31 submitted the list of 256.