Bangladesh parliament approves amendment allowing impeachment of high court justices News
Bangladesh parliament approves amendment allowing impeachment of high court justices

[JURIST] The Bangladesh Parliament [official website] on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment to the nation’s constitution [text] granting the parliament authority to impeach Supreme Court [official website] justices. The amendment, backed [AP report] by the ruling Awami League [party website], faced heavy criticism from judges who viewed the change as an attempt by the ruling party to exert more control over the judiciary. Under the new amendment, Parliament will be allowed to impeach judges on grounds of “misbehavior or incapacity.”

Earlier this week the Bangladesh Supreme Court commuted [JURIST report] the death sentence of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) [party website] Vice President Delwar Hossain Sayedee, sentencing him to life behind bars for crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War [Bangladesh News backgrounder] with Pakistan. Also this month Bangladesh officials approved [JURIST report] the Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2014, a law that sets a two year jail term for any person who marries a girl under the age of 18. At the beginning of September Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] announced [JURIST report] that the Bangladesh government should abolish a recently enacted policy that restricts the media’s freedom of expression.

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