US envoy Dan Mozena feels existing justice system in Bangladesh can be misused and so needs change.
“In Bangladesh and throughout South Asia, justice traditionally has relied largely on confessions by the perpetrator,” said Mozena, as he nears the end of his tenure in Dhaka.
“This system (confessions) invites abuse as the agents of justice have a great incentive to force confessions from alleged perpetrators leading the courts to throw the case out,” Dan Mozena said.
He said this often leads to “a miscarriage of justice” and erodes public confidence in the judiciary.
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Mozena stressed on collecting, processing and presenting evidence in a way that a case stands “credibly” in the court.
The outgoing ambassador was speaking at a seminar on death investigations at the Detective Training School in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The seminar brought together police, firemen, forensic specialists, prosecutors and judges along with American experts to discuss the topic.
The Chief of the Washington DC Medical Examiners’ Office, a senior specialised agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and forensic officer from the ICITAP programme were among the US experts who joined the seminar.
Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker and Chief of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Md Mokhlesur Rahman were present among others at the inauguration of the seminar.
The ambassador termed justice as the “bedrock of democracy”.
“In a democracy, the state bears responsibility for delivering of justice to citizens. It is a difficult task as the state must ensure justice to the victim, to the alleged perpetrator of a crime, and to society as a whole … all must have confidence in the system of justice”.
Mozena argued that if the state fails to provide effective justice, citizens lose faith in the system and resort to vigilante justice and take the law into their own hands.
“A breakdown of the justice system is not compatible with democracy”.
He said the justice system in Bangladesh and the South Asia as a whole traditionally relies on confessions by the perpetrator.
He, however, lauded Bangladesh government’s “determination to take forward the justice system to one based on evidence….clear, unbiased, straightforward evidence that provides a legitimate basis for convictions and the delivery of justice”.
The seminar was meant to understand how to collect, process, and present the evidence so that a case “stands up in court”.
Source: BD news24
