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BANGLADESH: Man arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Police in Jessore district

July 23, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

24 July 2006
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UA-251-2006: BANGLADESH: Man arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Police in Jessore district

BANGLADESH: Arbitrary arrest; detention; harassment; misuse of power; collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that Mr. Kamrul Hasan Kamal, who was an insurance company worker, was arbitrarily arrested, detained and implicated in a murder case by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police of Jessore on 12 July 2006. However, after eight days of interrogation in the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) the officials confessed that Kamal was arrested by mistake. Despite this confession Kamal is still detained and the fabricated murder case against him has not been discharged. The authorities have not taken any action against the alleged perpetrators.

On 12 July 2006, at around 11:00 am, a team from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Police of Jessore district led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr. Ataur Rahman, arrested Mr. Kamrul Hasan Kamal from his house number 213, block- D, at the new satellite town without any specific allegation. Kamal was handed over to the Kotwali police.

On the same day, the police produced Kamal before the court showing him arrested in a pending murder case (number: 44, date: 9 May 2006) and applied for remand. The police also alleged that Kamal was involved with Islamic militant organisation, Jamaatul Muzahidin of Bangladesh (JMB). Kamal had been under police watch for more than three months at the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs for his supposed involvement with the countrywide bomb blast on 17 August 2005.?The court granted 10 days police remand for Kamal responding to the petition of the Investigation Officer of the case, Sub Inspector Mr. Morsalin.

That night the police sent Kamal to Dhaka for interrogation in the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC). However, after eight days in police remand the JIC officials sent Kamal back to the Magistrate Court in Jessore, which ordered Kamal be put in the Jessore Central Jail. The police and the JIC officials confessed that Kamal was arrested by mistake.

Kamal's family claims that Kamal was working for an insurance company and has no connection with any militant activities. They allege that the police harassed Kamal in fabricated charges, causing the family financial loss and social stigma as a result of the arbitrary arrest, detention and implication in the murder case.

Meanwhile, the police have not discharged Kamal from the murder case despite the officials confession that Kamal was arrested by mistake. The government authorities have not take any action against the alleged perpetrators.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

The Bangladesh government has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) but has yet to implemented this. It has reserved article 14 of the CAT, which ensures medical treatment, compensation and complete redress to victims. In addition, as there is no domestic legislation to criminalise torture committed by law enforcement officials in the country, most of the perpetrators are not punished or receive only departmental disciplinary action or light punishment with charges of "maltreatment" rather than of "torture". As far as the AHRC is aware, there has been no single case in which the victim has received compensation for torture harassment by the police.?

Beside this, there are no independent complaint mechanisms where torture victims can lodge complaints against perpetrators. As a result the police conduct inquiries into torture cases where police are also the alleged torturers. The police are normally reluctant to take action against their colleagues and in some cases they even threaten the victims to withdraw their complaints.?

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the persons listed below and urge them to ensure a fair and impartial investigation into this case. Please also urge the authorities to release Kamal from the jail and discharge him from the fabricated murder case. The alleged perpetrators must be held accountable for their actions. Please also urge the Government of Bangladesh to pay appropriate compensation to the victim. The security of the victim must be ensured.

Suggested letter:

Dear __________,

BANGLADESH: Man arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Police in Jessore district

Name of victim:? Mr. Kamrul Hasan Kamal, son of the late Mr. Mohsin Ali, living in house number 213, block- D of new satellite town of Jessore district
Names of alleged perpetrators:
1. Mr. Ataur Rahman, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Police of Jessore district
2. Mr. Morsalin, Sub Inspector (SI) of Police, attached to the Jhikargachha police station in Jessore district
3. Law enforcing agents involved in the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC), Dhaka
Place of incident: Jhikargachha police station in Jessore district
Date of incident: 12 July 2006

I am writing to draw your attention to a case of arbitrary arrest, detention and harassment of a man in fabricated charges by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police of Jessore district.

According to the information I have received, on 12 July 2006, at around 11:00 am, a CID Police team of Jessore district led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr. Ataur Rahman, arrested Mr. Kamrul Hasan Kamal from his house at the new satellite town without any specific allegation. Kamal was handed over to the Kotwali police.

On the same day, the police produced Kamal before the court showing him arrested in a pending murder case (number: 44, date: 9 May 2006) and applied for remand. The police also alleged that Kamal was involved with Islamic militant organisation, Jamaatul Muzahidin of Bangladesh (JMB). Kamal had been under police watch for more than three months at the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs for his supposed involvement with the countrywide bomb blast on 17 August 2005. The court granted 10 days police remand for Kamal responding to the petition of the Investigation Officer of the case Sub Inspector, Mr. Mursalin. On the same night, the police sent Kamal to Dhaka for interrogation in the Join Interrogation Cell (JIC).
?lt;br />However, I have learned that after eight days in police remand the JIC officials sent Kamal back to the Magistrate Court in Jessore, which ordered Kamal be put in the Jessore Central Jail. The police and the JIC officials confessed that Kamal was arrested by mistake.

I have been informed that Kamal's family claim that Kamal was working in an insurance company and has no connection with any militant activities. They allege that the police harassed Kamal in fabricated charges, causing the family financial loss and social stigma as a result of the arbitrary arrest, detention and implication in the murder case.

I am aware that the police have not discharged Kamal from the murder case despite the official’s confession that Kamal was arrested by mistake. I am also aware that the government authorities have not take any action against the alleged perpetrators.

In light of the above, I strongly urge you to order an impartial and proper investigation into this case by an independent agency (not the police). I urge that the perpetrator be charged under section 211 of the Penal Code of Bangladesh to which the offenders of fabricated charges can be punished. The victim must be released without delay and the charges against him dropped. I also urge you to take appropriate action against other police officers that are responsible for the alleged illegal arrest of the victim. Adequate compensation must be provided to the victim for the loss he has suffered.

I further request the Bangladesh government to immediately implement the CAT Act so that torture perpetrators can be punished under the law. An independent agency where torture victims can lodge a complaint should be established and effective compensation should be introduced and strictly enforced without further delay. Only through these actions, can the Bangladesh government be able to eliminate the routine practice of torture and other crimes committed by law enforcement officers in the country.

I trust your intervention will be forthcoming.

Yours sincerely,
?lt;br />-------------------------------------------

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mrs. Begum Khaleda Zia
Prime Minister
Government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh
Office of the Prime Minister
Old Parliament House,
Tejgaon, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 8828160-79, 9888677
Fax: +880 2 8113244 or 3243 or 1015 or 1490

2. Mr. Md. Lutfozzaman Babor MP
State Minister
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 7169069 (O) or 8359000 (R)
Fax: +880 2 7160405, +880 2 7164788

3. Mr. Sayed J. R. Modassir Hossain
The Chief Justice
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9562792
Fax: +880 2 9565058

4. Mr. A J Mohammad Ali
Attorney General of Bangladesh
Office of the Attorney General
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9562868
Fax: +880 2 9561568

5. Mr. Anwarul Iqbal
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
Bangladesh Police
Police Headquarters
Fulbaria, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9562054 or 7176451 or 7176677 (O), +880 2 8362552 or 8362553 (R)
Fax: +880 2 9563362 or 9563363

6. Mr. Mezbah-un-Nabi
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)
Khulna Range
Bangladesh Police
Office of the DIG of Khulna Range
Khulna
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88 041 624100 (O)
Fax: +88 041 721358 (O)

7. Ms. Leila Zerrougui
Working Group on arbitrary detention
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTENTION: WORKING GROUP ARBITRARY DETENTION)

Thank you.

Urgent Appeal Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-251-2006
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.