FAUSTINA PEREIRA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suo-motu Rule was issued on the basis of a letter addressed to Hon'ble Chief Justice by Dr. Faustina Pereira, Advocate of Supreme Court and also Coordinator of Advocacy Ain o Salish Kendra. The Hon'ble Chief Justice directed the Registrar to place the matter before this bench for taking appropriate action.

(2.) In the above letter the attention of Hon'ble Chief Justice was drawn to the fact that 29 prisoners of different countries were languishing in the jail for about 5(five) years even after serving out their sentence. The Rule as issued upon the relevant Ministry of the Government and we have heard the learned Deputy Attorney General and the learned Advocate on behalf of the petitioner Md. Nizamul Haque and also Dr. Faustina Pereira. Today we also heard Mr. Armand Roussclot, Regional Representative of International Organisation for Migration who also appeared before us and informed us about the activities of the Organisation after this Rule was issued.

(3.) We have received the Memo bearing No. 4288 dated 7-5-2001 from Md. Jahangir, Senior Jail Superintendent, Central Jail, Dhaka. This memo contains the report as to the steps taken by the jail authority for facilitating release of the prisoners in question. It appears that as regards the prisoners of India and Pakistan the authority contacted High Commissions of those two countries. It further appears from the memo that except the prisoner at Sl. No. 14, Miss Dibba Bharati, the Indian High Commission is verifying the fact whether the 13(thirteen) Indian Prisoners are actually citizens of India. It further appears that the Ministry of Home Affairs, also made contact with the Tanzanian Embassy regarding repatriation of 2(two) Tanzanian Prisoners. As regards 10(ten) prisoners of Myanmar, Government of Bangladesh has not yet taken any step and, as such, no contact was made with the Embassy of Myanmar regarding release of those 10 citizens of that country. Lastly, from the report we have found that one of the prisoners of Myanmar at Sl. No. 7, Md. Safi, died at Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University Hospital on 5-5-2001.