Trial of Aug 21 Grenade Attack Case: IPU worried at slow progress
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) expressed deep concern over the slow progress in the trial of August 21 grenade attack on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the assassination of Shah AMS Kibria in 12 years.
“More than 12 years after the attacks, none of the perpetrators has been held responsible in a court of law, reiterating that justice delayed is justice denied,” said the IPU Committee on Human Rights of Parliamentarians in its report yesterday at the IPU Assembly in Dhaka.
The committee also “hopes that the trial will proceed swiftly and that further progress will promptly be made towards ensuring full accountability for the serious crimes, in conformity with national and international standards of fair trial, including those regarding the application of capital punishment, and without any political interference.”
It also calls for fair trial of the cases filed in connection with the attacks.
“Two cases [Kibria assassination and August 21 grenade attack] are sub judice matter and now before the judiciary authorities, so we want to let the judicial process run its course. We want to make sure the suspects and victims are given due process whatever legal process has been instituted,” said Fowzia Koofi, president of IPU Committee on the Rights of Parliamentarians, at a media briefing held at BICC.
She also said the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians in its recommendations forwarded to the governing council asked for timely and fair trial of both the cases.
“Families of the victims and perpetrators should be informed the progress of the cases from time to time.”
Twenty-four leaders and workers of the then opposition Awami League and its associate bodies including the then Mohila AL president Ivy Rahman, wife of late president Zillur Rahman, were killed and more than 500 others suffered splinter injuries in the grenade attack on the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina's rally.
Many of the injured became maimed for life. Though Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, she lost her hearing ability due to the impact of the repeated grenade blasts near the truck-dais of her rally.
A former AL leader and the then MP Kibria was killed on January 27, 2005 in a grenade attack in his constituency of Habiganj.
Both the cases are at the trial stage.
At the briefing, it was also said that in last one year 459 incidents of violation of human rights of lawmakers were presented and in the assembly in Dhaka 147 such incidents were discussed.
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