87pc people against attacking accused on court premises

As many as 87 per cent people do not support any kind of attacks on the accused on the court premises. An online poll conducted by Prothom Alo revealed this.

The question in the survey was, do you support the illegal attacks on the defendants on the court premises? An overwhelming 17,044 (87 per cent of total respondents) people answered “no”.

Among those who participated in the survey, 1,967 (11 per cent) people answered “yes” to the question. That is, they have supported the incidents of illegal attacks on the accused on the court premises.

Some 2 per cent (506) of the 19,517 respondents did not take any side. Prothom Alo ran the poll on its Facebook page from 6:30 pm on 4 September to 6:30 pm on 7 September, with one Facebook account having the scope of voting for once.

Several former ministers, MPs and a former justice was attacked on the court premises following the fall of Awami League government in the face of student-people uprising on 5 August. Eggs were also thrown at them.

Interim government’s law affairs adviser Asif Nazrul said such attacks on court premises are in no way acceptable.

Speaking to the media at the secretariat on 29 August, he said the government was thinking how to avoid such attacks.

Rights activists and legal experts also stressed that no cruel, inhuman or degrading behaviour is warranted with a person who has been arrested in a criminal case.

Speaking about this, chairperson of human rights organisation Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK) ZI Khan Panna told Prothom Alo that there is no scope to inflict any physical or mental torture to a person after arresting for trial.

Such torture or harassment of an accused constitutes a criminal offense, he added.