Bangladesh: Former chief justice Khairul Haque detained in sedition, forgery cases

Bangladesh’s former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque was taken into custody on Thursday in connection with three criminal cases including one involving sedition, according to officials.

Haque, who held the position of the country’s 19th chief justice between 2010 and 2011, is widely known for delivering key judgments including the 2011 decision that deemed the nation’s nonpartisan caretaker government system unconstitutional.

The 81-year-old was detained from his residence in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi neighbourhood by officers from the detective branch, Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Talebur Rahman told the media.

“Haque faces charges in three separate cases. Legal proceedings are in motion,” Rahman stated, adding that he is expected to be formally shown as arrested in at least one of the cases before being presented in court.

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The cases against him were filed by different lawyers in August 2024, shortly after the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government was ousted in a violent street movement led by the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) on August 5.

At the time, Haque was serving as the chairman of the Law Commission, a post he resigned from on August 13.

The first case, filed in Dhaka, accused him of fraud and forgery in allegedly altering the judgment annulling the 13th constitutional amendment related to the caretaker system.

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A week later an identical case was filed against him in river port town of Narayanganj, on the outskirts of the capital, over the same issue and in the same month, another case was filed in Dhaka by another lawyer over his alleged corrupt practices, illegal and fraudulent judgments.

Haque had authored the lead judgment that declared the caretaker government system in 2011 as “illegal,” calling the system contrary to the spirit of the constitution.

The initial verdict, however, suggested the next two subsequent elections could be held under caretaker governments while a number of leading Bangladeshi jurists strongly argued for retaining the system for the sake of the country’s nascent democracy.

The verdict passed narrowly, with three of the seven apex court judges dissenting and three concurring, leaving Haque with the casting vote.

Legal experts and political commentators later criticised the ruling, arguing that it undermined democratic safeguards and paved the way for Hasina to retain power without a neutral electoral mechanism.

Several analysts said the verdict gave Hasina a political weapon to cling to power as the end of the caretaker system meant an end to the mechanism of checks and balances, which ensured free and fair elections in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2008.

With inputs from agencies