Bangladeshi mutineers won’t face court martial

DHAKA - Bangladesh Tuesday decided to prosecute nearly 3,500 border guards allegedly involved in a late-February mutiny at the Bangladesh Rifles Headquarters in Dhaka under the paramilitary force’s own laws, rejecting the military’s demand that they be court martialled.

“The mutineers will be tried under the Bangladesh Rifles Orders of 1972 and 1976, but those who were involved in killings and other offences during the rebellion will be prosecuted at a speedy trial tribunal under the penal code,” Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters after an inter-ministry meeting which decided the mode of the trial.

The Bangladesh Rifles is a paramilitary force run under the ministry of home affairs, rather than the defence ministry, and has different laws governing the conduct of its troops.

The 33-hour troop mutiny against their commanders that ended at the BDR’s Dhaka headquarters Feb 26 left 75 people, including 57 army officers, dead, triggering tension in the regular armed forces.

The army has demanded the immediate prosecution of the mutineers under the Army Act of 1952, but the government of Sheikh Hasina Wazed sought the top Bangladeshi court’s opinion.

The Supreme Court opposed the court-martial demand.

Bangladesh’s Criminal Investigation Department, with the help of Britain’s Scotland Yard and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been investigating the mutiny.

Once the department submits its report, the trial is scheduled to start sometime in November, the law minister said, adding the chief of the Bangladesh Rifles would run the trial outside Dhaka in line with the BDR Act by forming courts in those places.

“The trial will be fair and transparent under whichever law it takes place,” he said.

Rights groups have cast doubt on whether the alleged mutineers would get justice if they were prosecuted in an army court martial.