PRESIDENT PARDONS RAJSHAHI PROFESSORS AS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 001944 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BG SUBJECT: PRESIDENT PARDONS RAJSHAHI PROFESSORS AS GOVERNMENT MARKS HUMAN RIGHTS DAY Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Geeta Pasi, reason 1.4(d) ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On December 10, President Iajuddin Ahmed granted clemency to four Rajshahi University professors convicted of violating the Emergency Powers Rules by fomenting student protests in August. The families of four Dhaka University professors being held on the same charges are hoping for a presidential pardon before Eid-ul-Azha on December 20. The Chief Adviser and other senior government officials made no mention of the pardons while participating in a Human Rights Day commemoration, although they did announce -- again -- the creation of a Human Rights Commission. END SUMMARY. PRESIDENTIAL CLEMENCY FOR RAJSHAHI PROFESSORS... ============================================= === ¶2. (SBU) On December 10, President Iajuddin Ahmed granted clemency to four Rajshahi University professors convicted of violating the Emergency Powers Rules. The four, Management Department Chair Moloy Kumor Bhomik and Mass Communications Department assistant professors Dulal Chandra Biswas, Selim Reza Newton, and Abdullah Al-Mamun, were released from Rajshahi jail within an hour of prison authorities receiving the faxed presidential order. They were met at the prison gates by a large gathering of family members and students and escorted back to Rajshahi University campus by police. ¶3. (SBU) On December 4, the four professors were convicted by a Rajshahi speedy trial court of violating the state of emergency by inciting the August 20-22 protests that turned violent. Two other professors were acquitted. The four were sentenced to two years of hard labor and fined 1,000 taka (approximately $13) each. The families of the convicted filed an appeal challenging the conviction on December 10. After their release, the four professors said they would continue with their appeal since the presidential pardon did not remove the convictions from their records. ¶4. (SBU) The President's secretary told the press the President granted clemency after receiving mercy petitions from the wives of the four convicted professors. Law Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein said the President had also granted a special exemption for the professors to permit them to retain their university posts, since normally their convictions would have barred them from teaching again. ¶5. (SBU) After their release, the professors claimed their wives had not asked for mercy but expressed gratitude for the President's "voluntary" pardon. They then called on the government to release all others being held in connection with the August violence, including four professors of the Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA). ...BUT STILL WAITING IN DHAKA ============================= ¶6. (SBU) According to the press, after a contentious debate on December 9, the members of DUTA agreed to postpone for two weeks a protest program slated to being on December 10 to agitate for the release of the four Dhaka University professors. The DUTA members were divided, with many younger professors demanding a stronger guarantee from the government the professors would be released soon. ¶7. (SBU) In that meeting, the media reported, DUTA's Acting General Secretary and President -- both filling in for the normal officers who were among the four Dhaka University professors detained -- told the association's members the government had agreed to release the professors within two weeks. Press reports also state that on the evening of December 10, Dhaka University Vice Chancellor SMA Faiz met with Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed and said the President had repeated this assurance to him. MEANWHILE, AT HUMAN RIGHTS DAY ============================== ¶8. (SBU) At about the same time the Rajshahi professors were stepping out of jail, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and DHAKA 00001944 002 OF 002 other senior government and diplomatic officials were participating in a government commemoration marking the 59th anniversary of the ratification of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. The Chief Adviser pointed to caretaker government efforts to curb corruption and empower government institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission as indicators of the government,s commitment to human rights. ¶9. (SBU) The Chief Adviser also discussed a December 9 decision by the Council of Advisers to establish a Human Rights Commission. He and Law Adviser Barrister Hosein told the audience all that was left to be done was draft the regulation for the President to promulgate. (NOTE: The government has made several announcements about the imminent creation of the Commission. The drafting of the promulgation has been one reason for the delay. END NOTE.) COMMENT ======= ¶10. (C) The pardoning of the Rajshahi professors was a smart move on the part of the government. It will gain the government much-needed domestic and international credibility on the human rights front, while pre-empting further campus protests agitating for the professors' release. Likewise, the announcement of the Human Rights Commission -- although not the first time -- is a positive sign, although how this body is formed and exactly what powers it will have are unclear. ¶11. (C) The government's official commemoration of Human Rights Day, on the other hand, was pro forma. The advisers' speeches were recitations of the government's initiatives, heavy on praise of their work to clean up institutions, but light on respect for individual human rights. There was also no mention of the lifting the state of emergency, the mechanism that has been used to curb many civil liberties in Bangladesh over the past eleven months. Pasi