At least 1,257 opposition political leaders and activists, mostly from the BNP, were awarded jail terms in different cases by different courts in Dhaka between August 1 and December 18, according to lawyers and court officials.
The disposal of what the BNP called political cases intensified after prime minister Sheikh Hasina, at a programme on October 21, asked lawyers to take prompt measures for quick disposal of cases related to arson attacks.
Most of the cases that ended in the conviction of opposition people were filed by the police or supporters of the ruling Awami League between 2013 and 2018.
Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform of pro-BNP lawyers, general secretary Kayser Kamal claimed on Monday that at least 1,249 BNP leaders and activists have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in 79 cases in the past 14 weeks.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Courts on Monday sentenced 14 leaders and activists of the BNP to different terms of imprisonment in two violence cases filed in 2018.
Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury sentenced 10 BNP people to four years imprisonment in a case filed with the Kalabagan police station in the capital.
The convicts are Md Bilal Hossain, Khaled Kibria Lucky, Mizanur Rahman, Johnny, Arman Ahmed Elin, Ashraf Hossain Alam Mia, Md Faruque, Md Moslem Uddin, Md Nasir and Mizu.
All are leaders and activists of the BNP and its wings.
The police filed the case on charges of violence in the Kalabagan police station area on September 13, 2018.
Meanwhile, Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Md Moinul Islam sentenced four BNP people to two years in jail in a case filed with the Kotwali police station in the capital.
The convicts are Shakwat Hossain Anan, Haider Ali Babla, Alauddin, and Riaz Ahmed.
The court also acquitted two accused, saying that the charges brought against them were not proven in the case.
On September 6, 2018, police filed a case against the BNP leaders and activists with the police station on charges of attacking and beating up the police.
A total of five witnesses testified before the court in the case.
BNP leaders termed the cases filed mostly under the Special Powers Act, the Explosive Substances Act, and the Penal Code, among others, as ‘politically motivated.’
BNP leaders and lawyers also accused the ruling Awami League government of hastening the trial of the cases ahead of the January 7 national election.
A High Court verdict pronounced in 2018 and published in October barred people jailed for two years or more from joining parliamentary elections.
BNP’s international affairs secretary and lawyer, Masud Ahmed Talukder, told New Age that the trial was going on at an abnormal speed against the BNP people in political cases, and they were failing to get justice from the courts.
‘The government gave a political task to the lower courts to punish the BNP leaders and activists quickly, and they were performing illegal duties,’ he said.
New Age