The last week has seen remarkable displays of courage from Bangladeshis demonstrating solidarity with Professor Yunus despite their government’s abominable and terrifying human rights record. First there was a bold statement from 34 leaders, and more recently there have been supportive street protests. Now comes an incisive essay from Shayan S. Khan, the Executive Editor of the venerable Dhaka Courier. He addresses head on the lame government response that they are in no position to interfere in a judicial process, without acknowledging how degraded and politicized the Bangladeshi judiciary has become over the last 15 years. Below is the essay in full, taken with the author’s generous permission from his Facebook page. He posted an important follow-up article to this one that can be found here.
Travesty of justice, guaranteed
It’s ridiculous – nobody is saying Dr Yunus should be spared because he is a Nobel laureate. That is a non-starter, an invalid request. The reason the Nobel laureates are banding together, and rights advocates and anyone who cares for transparency and justice at home or abroad is because a man is being persecuted, unfairly, clearly unfairly. Nobody would give a damn if he seemed truly guilty of the crimes alleged. They would wash their hands of him. And at this stage we should mention it’s not just him, there are 4 others with him, all trustees of Grameen Telecom. The first and foremost red flag is that allegations that are civil in nature have been filed as a criminal case.
What are these allegations? Not killing or mistreating or abusing employees. Delays in making them, or their job status, ‘permanent’ at Grameen Telecom. We all do jobs at different organisations. Has anyone ever even contemplated that their bosses should not only be hauled up in court, but also be jailed for such delays?
The difference between civil and criminal cases is that in civil cases the penalty is a fine, or compensation. In criminal cases the perpetrator goes to jail. What sounds like the appropriate course of action in the situation we just discussed?
Without going into whether the employees’ complaints have merit, when Dr Yunus’s lawyers petitioned to have the case thrown out on that basis (civil v criminal), a full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court sat to reject that petition. There could be no greater signal that these courts have it in for Dr Yunus this time. The trial in the labour court started just two days later. They seem to be in an awful hurry too.
In a country where 3.2 million cases remain pending with the courts, where labour court cases take especially long to be resolved, if at all, this case has proceeded with remarkable haste.
Important also to note that the first case filed in this connection was not by any of the employees, but by the Department for Inspection of Factories and Establishments, or DIFE, the same guys who are supposed to go check fire alarms, etc, workplace safety at factories, restaurants, eateries, after an ‘inspection visit’ of the Grameen Telecom offices, a private trust, back in September 2021. I’m not saying they can’t do it, but how many of you working in an office setting, not a factory or restaurant or production facility, have experienced DIFE visits going through employee records?
A full bench of the highest court of appeal is supposed to be your highest chance at getting justice, in any judicial system. Unfortunately after 15 years of one-sided politicisation, in Bangladesh today, the fuller the bench, the higher the chances of the higher judiciary being used to pursue political ends.
Travesty of justice, guaranteed.
In a postscript he added, “I should just clarify that the politicisation has always been there of course, not just in the last 15 years. But when power changed hands every 5 years, it meant at any one time the panel of judges in say the Supreme Court or High Court had appointees from both sides, meaning a spectrum of views were present. It is the one-sided politicisation in the last 15 years that ruined everything, as every single judge today is an AL appointee in hock to their agenda.”