Hasina orders courts in all Bangladesh jails for prisoners in ill health

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered establishment of court rooms in all the prisons throughout Bangladesh so that trials can proceed even if prisoners have physical problems.

The prime minister issued the directive during the passage of a project to reconstruct the Cumilla jail at a cost of Tk 6.25 billion in Tuesday’s meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council or ECNEC.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal later told the media about the orders.

The prisons would be considered as rehabilitation centres, not places for punishment, the minister said.

The government has plans to engage prisoners in producing textile by using handlooms and in other productive jobs, and share the profit with them, he said.

It also plans to keep telephone booths in all the prisons so that the prisoners can get in touch with their families, Kamal added.    

The ECNEC cleared 21 projects, including the one in Cumilla, at a total estimated cost of around Tk 197.8 billion.

Hasina’s orders on setting up courts in prisons came six days before a court set up inside the old jailhouse on Nazimuddin Road in Dhaka is set to deliver the verdict in Zia Charitable Trust graft case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

The former prime minister had been in the jail after conviction in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case in February.

The special court hearing the charitable trust graft case was shifted to the jail following government orders as Khaleda was skipping hearings due to illness.

She was recently transferred to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for treatment.