Placing defendants in locked cages

This refers to the report, "Egypt courts jail more than 160 Morsi backers" (TDS, May 19). When Morsi was being tried, a discerning viewer of television news of this trial could notice that Morsi was pacing up and down in a cage. This practice of bringing defendants in locked cages to the court for trial is common even in Western nations like France, Canada and Australia, apart from Russia, former Soviet Republics of Armenia, Moldova and Georgia. These cages are known as docks and are made of wood or a combination of wood and glass. The International Criminal Court in the Hague and American courts opine that these cages are prejudicial. The live broadcast of courts' proceedings has brought this to the scrutiny of legal experts, rights experts and also judges. Putting someone in a cage amounts to punishing the defendant, even though he/she has not been pronounced guilty by the court.
Officials in favour of these docks say that it keeps in check the violent behaviour of the suspects and also keep the defendants safe from the hostile public. But the European Court of Human Rights has criticised the use of locked docks as degrading and inhuman.
Deendayal M.Lulla
Mumbai, India