No separate courtroom for Cyber Tribunal in 6 years
MUHAMMAD YEASIN, Dhaka
The countrys lone Cyber Tribunal is yet to get a separate courtroom, despite the lapse of more than six years since its inception in 2013 to try cybercriminals. The Cyber Tribunal started its journey on July 28, 2013 after receiving three cases. A total of 33 cases were received by the tribunal in 2014, 152 in 2015, 233 in 2016, 568 in 2017, 676 in 2018 and 184 cases till March 27 this year, sources said.
Advocate Nazrul Islam Shamim, special public prosecutor of the Cyber Tribunal, said: Till March 27, we have received 1,849 cases. Of these, 522 have been resolved. Criminals were punished in 25 cases. The poor number of cases being disposed of is due to the lack of a separate courtroom.
Most of the cybercrime related cases were filed under the ICT Act on charges of uploading indecent pictures of women on Facebook and other sites, hurting religious sentiment, making indecent remarks about important people, publishing false and defamatory reports on newspapers and online news portals, hacking bank passwords, and leaking exam question papers.
ID hacking, stealing of credit card information, intimidation via social media, and luring of unsuspecting people into online financial scamsplus other net-based fraudalso fall under the definition.
A survey reveals that 34 per cent of cybercrime victims are between 19 and 25. Among the victims, 53 per cent are women, and 47 per cent men.
A chamber has been kept on the six-floor of the Dhaka metropolitan district and session judges court building for the Cyber Tribunal. But there is no specific courtroom or ejlash for the Cyber Tribunal. The judge of the Cyber Tribunal has been carrying out his work in special judges court-4 when it is vacant or theres a break.
The Cyber Tribunal does not
work for many days when the Special Judgess Court-4 functions in full
swing. If the special court completes
the days proceedings before lunch
break, the Cyber Tribunal is able to
function in the afternoon.
Most of the days, the Cyber Tribunal cannot work in the morning due to the lack of a specific room. This results in immense suffering for litigants, who come from various parts of the country to take part in the hearing.
Women are the worst sufferers, as most of the cases are filed by them on charges of uploading indecent pictures on Facebook and other sites. The litigants come on the scheduled date of hearing, but the tribunal does not carry out its work, lawyers said.
However, advocate Nazrul Islam Shamim, public prosecutor of the Cyber Tribunal, said: Although six years have lapsed since the inception of the tribunal, it is yet to get a separate courtroom. This has resulted in slow disposal of cases. The tribunal has no necessary instruments. The judicial work is slow due to various other problems too.
In response to a query, he said he does not know how many days or years it will take to get a courtroom for the tribunal. The pending cases of the tribunal are increasing due to the lack of a specific
courtroom. Shamim also said that though the tribunal is conducting trial in ICT cases, it does not have enough digital facilities to try the cases.
We have no specific courtroom, PP office or room to keep important documents and samples of the cases. We have informed the higher authorities, but nothing has been done yet, the PP said.
Shamim Al Mamun, a bench assistant (peshkar) of the Cyber Tribunal, said: The tribunal is the only one of its kind in the country, but we are not getting enough facilities. We have to share courtroom and office room with other courts due to lack of accommodation.
Around 1,371 cases are currently pending before the Cyber Tribunal. Many have been pending for four to five years, sources said.
