International Crimes Tribunal Act will not have a provision to ban political parties
The amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal Act will not have a provision to recommend banning any political party, said Professor Dr. Asif Nazrul, Advisor to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of the interim government. He said this at a press briefing organized at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Thursday.
The legal advisor said, “Today, the amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal Act was raised in the Advisory Council meeting, and it was accepted. However, the Advisory Council felt that the amendment we made had a provision to punish organizations for crimes against humanity. Our proposed amendment said that if it considers it necessary to punish an organization, the tribunal can recommend punishment to the competent authority.”
He said, “Today’s Advisory Council meeting said that we do not want to link this trial with any other issue. If the question of banning a political party or any organization comes up, there will be an opportunity to question this law unnecessarily. We do not want to give that opportunity. We want to do the trial in a decent way, in a fair way. For this reason, this provision has been canceled.’
Asif Nazrul said, ‘We felt that if a political party or any other organization needs to be banned for their criminal activities or if there is a demand in the society, then we have other laws, there are provisions for banning in all those laws. There is the Anti-Terrorism Act, there is in the Election Act, so seeing that this provision is not here, we no longer have that opportunity, no. It is not in the War Crimes Trial Act, but it is in other laws. That will be considered later if we have political consensus, if there is public demand.’
Yesterday, Tuesday, at a press conference at the Secretariat, the legal advisor said, ‘The interim government is going to create an opportunity to take punitive action against political parties by amending the International Crimes Tribunal Act. For this reason, the draft of the International Crimes Tribunal Ordinance will be raised for approval in the Advisory Council meeting tomorrow, Wednesday (today).
Asif Mahmud, Advisor to the Ministry of Local Government and Youth and Sports, Advisor Mahfuz Alam, and Shafiqul Alam, Press Secretary to the Chief Advisor, were present at the briefing.
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