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Originally Posted by sensible
Getting a conviction from the lower court may not be that difficult. Under the new law, a candidate will not be allowed to participate in any elections during the apeal process. That is, the high court cannot give a stay order of the lower court ruling. So if anyone wants somebody off the list of contestants, then all they need is to get a conviction at the lower court just before the election. Then that person is out of that election until the next election 5 years later. By then may be this person can clear his name in the high court.
But that's just one aspect. The rule of law in a civil society says no one is guilty until proven so. The civil court system assumes everyone to be innocent. So the proof of burden rests with the accuser, in this case the govt. proving the corruption charges. Now, if the case is being considered in the high court, that person is not proven guilty as the case is not finally proven yet. So not allowing that person to participate in an election seems assuming he/she is guilty even before those allegations are proven. This violets the basic concept of civil rule. That's the bigger problem with this new law.
If you want civil rule, then every one should get an equal chance under the eyes of law. otherwise, who can say that what US is doing in gitmo is bad? All the US is doing is keeping those people because allegedly those are terrotists!
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Well I will go with a much used analogy, when you are removing a tumor by surgery, a few good cell are removed too .. similarly during this cleansing times of Bangladesh, the laws will cause some level of harm to innocent people too. Already there have been reports of perfectly legal structures being demolished during demolition of illegal structures.
These thugs always got away with the earlier laws where the high/supreme court would issue a stay order on lower courts rulings and allow bail to these people. Once they are out, they would use their influence to clear their names. This govt. knows that its time is very limited, and it cannot allow long time spans for the trials to go on. Hence, this rule us a rule of necessity and if there is some undesirable side-effect, so be it, we still want our political arena to be cleaned up.