Ershad can be tried under army act
Says Anisul Huq
Former president and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad can be brought to justice under the Army Act, 1952 on charges of “mutiny and insubordination” as he usurped power overthrowing the then president, the supreme commander of the defence services of Bangladesh.
Advocate Anisul Huq, an eminent jurist, said this to the news agency yesterday.
The offence (mutiny and insubordination), under section 31 of the Army Act, is punishable by death.
Anisul, a senior lawyer in criminal law, said that the higher courts' judgments on the fifth and seventh amendments to the Constitution that declared illegal the promulgation of martial law, made an identical observation that the military usurpers should be suitably punished.
The parliament may enact a law in this regard, he added, referring to the apex court judgments.
As to how Ershad can be put on the dock, Anisul said neither the constitution nor the existing Penal Code provides for this.
There is no specific provision under the Penal Code to try and punish a military usurper.
Besides, article 35 (1) is the main impediment to putting Ershad on the dock. It says: “No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence.”
On March 24, 1982 the then army chief Lt Gen HM Ershad usurped state power overthrowing the elected government of Justice Abdus Sattar of BNP. He put the country under the martial law, suspending the constitution on the pretext that members of the ruling party were ignoring their duty to the state and bickering for power amongst themselves, thus jeopardizing national security and sovereignty.
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