[JURIST] The interim government of Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] Thursday announced that its judiciary has formally separated from the executive branch. The interim government completed [JURIST report] all formalities necessary to separate the judiciary in August, meeting a deadline set by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official backgrounder] in July. Lower court judges and judicial magistrates now will be appointed by the Supreme Court as opposed to the executive branch's law ministry. Bangladeshi interim government officials say this marks a substantial step toward complete judicial independence.

In 1995, 223 judicial officers and judges filed a petition in the High Court demanding that the judiciary be made fully independent from the executive, saying that pervasive executive influence was contrary to the Bangladeshi constitution [text]. Prior reform efforts to create an independent judiciary had been unsuccessful until now. Reuters has more.