Last Change:
12/29/2024
The Torture and Custodial Death (Prohibition) Act
Year: 2013
Type: Domestic law
Rights Category: Liberty & security of person
Description
The law stipulates that the law enforcement agencies- police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Customs, Immigration, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), intelligence agencies, Ansar & VDP, Coast Guard and other public servants cannot extract confessional statement through torture. The law says any custodian torturing a detainee would be liable of committing offences defined under the law. Again, any person attempting to commit, aiding and abetting to commit, or conspiring to commit an offence must be considered an offender. According to the new law, for any death in custody, the custodian would be awarded with rigorous life imprisonment or a fine of Tk 100,000. In addition, they must compensate family members of the affected with Tk 200,000.
Selected provisions
Any person who is not a citizen of Bangladesh is arrested for an offence under this Act, then that person shall –
(a) be entitled to communicate with its own country's High Commission
(b) be entitled to communicate with the nearest appropriate representative of the State in the neighbouring territories.
(i) Any person who is not a citizen of Bangladesh is arrested for an offence under this Act, then Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh shall request the authorities of the country concerned to extradite that person for trial
(ii) If a person accused for torture is not a citizen of Bangladesh, upon a request from any country's Government of such person for extraditing him/her to the concerned country, the authorized Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh shall immediately inform that country regarding the steps taken or proposed regarding trial of the said person or his/her extradition
(iii) Measures relating to extradition of any person who is not a citizen of Bangladesh is accused of torture under this Act shall be initiated, upon requests from the concerned Government, shall be taken in accordance with the Extradition Act 1974 (Act No. 58 of 1974)
(iv) Where there is an extradition arrangement in force between the Government of Bangladesh and the Government of any other State, such arrangement shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Extradition Act, 1974 (Act No. 58 of 1974), to include provision for extradition in respect of the offence of torture as defined in the Convention, and of attempting to commit, aiding and abetting the commission of, or conspiring to commit, the offence of torture as defined in the Convention
(v) Where there is no extradition arrangement made by the Government of Bangladesh with any State in force on the date of the commencement of this Act, the Government may apply the provisions of the Extradition Act 1974 (No. 58 of 1974)
(vi) The Government shall afford and supply any relevant evidence at its disposal to the relevant authorities of any State, as may be necessary in connection with the criminal proceedings instituted in that State against any person, in respect of the offence of torture.
In case of any harm caused to a complainant on account of negligence or carelessness by a public officer or a person acting on behalf of a public officer then the accused shall be personally liable to prove that the said harm has not been caused due to negligence or carelessness by him/her or the person acting on his/her behalf.