SCBA says mobile court punishment unlawful

Dhaka, June 20 (bdnews24.com)?The president of the opposition-controlled Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has said executive magistrates punishing opposition supporters in political programmes through mobile courts is unlawful.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, a pro-BNP lawyer, on Monday at a press briefing said that such move was a threat to the independence of judiciary.

Magistrates before and during the BNP shutdown on June 12 and 13 summarily sentenced over 100 opposition supporters to jail and penalised many others.

BNP acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on the second day of the 36-hour countrywide lockdown vowed to challenge such mobile courts in court. He also expressed the party's stand to face the issue politically.

He alleged the punishments were given under the tobacco and anti-drug law of 1952.

Two executive magistrates on that day claimed that they were handing down punishments under sections 353 and 186 of the 2009 Bangladesh Penal Code for mobile courts. The sections provide for action against obstruction in government duty.

Home minister Shahara Khatun the same day said legal action had been taken against those creating anarchy.

"Mobile courts are working in line with the law, even the ministers don't have the right to speak about or against the court."

Human-rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra expressed concern over the operations of such mobile courts, saying those might affect general people like in the past.

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