Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has alleged that there is no rule of law in Bangladesh where even the Supreme Court is not safe.
‘This is not reform, this is mob rule. There is no rule of law in Bangladesh when even the Supreme Court is not safe,’ he alleged in his verified Facebook account.
Joy, who was ICT adviser of Hasina, said on Saturday that the protesters threatened to attack the Supreme Court and burn down the home of the chief justice of Bangladesh.
In the post Joy said, ‘They demanded the court resign and they provided a list of names of people to be appointed. The interim government gave in to their demand and appointed Justices named by the protesters. How can the Supreme Court of a country be changed without any due process, without elected Parliament?’
He also said that the protesters gave a list of 41 journalists to the National Press Club demanding they be expelled.
‘After all their allegations of my mother’s government’s crackdown on freedom of speech, is this not a more severe attack on freedom of speech? So a mob gets to provide a list of journalists to throw out?’
He said that he would like to hear from the international media and government on this. ‘You have been so vocal in the past, why are you silent now?’
Joy reportedly lives in the United States.
Earlier on Saturday, the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement issued an ultimatum, demanding that the chief justice and the judges of the Appellate Division resign by 1:00pm Saturday.
Later, Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan submitted his resignation letter to the law ministry, said law, justice, and parliamentary affairs adviser Asif Nazrul.
Followed by him, five justices of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division— Justice M Enayetur Rahim, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim, Justice Md Shahinur Islam and Justice Kashefa Hussain, stepped down.
Later, president Mohammed Shahabuddin appointed Syed Refaat Ahmed, senior judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, as the 25th chief justice of Bangladesh on Saturday.