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Odhikar, a human-rights organisation, Thursday criticised a "fast-track judicial process" for former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, exempting her from personal appearance in court, reports bdnews24.com.
"The way the caretaker government has fast-tracked the judicial process by getting courts to issue orders in a day exempting former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from personal appearance has exposed, yet again, use of judicial process for extraneous purposes," Odhikar alleged.
Odhikar also pointed to the return of Hasina's seized passports to "purportedly facilitate her treatments".
"These hurried decisions have seriously undermined the judiciary and the judicial process in the people's perception," it said in its report on 17 months of emergency in Bangladesh, released Thursday.
"In fact, at the time of releasing this report, Sheikh Hasina has been released on parole for 8 weeks on medical grounds and is on her way to the US."
"It is obvious that political calculation has overwritten both the emergency and the ordinances by which the regime is ruling the country, but most importantly the normal process of the judiciary," Odhikar alleged.
Odhikar urged the government to focus on the election process and return the country to normalcy to create a proper environment to regain confidence of people.
"Manipulation of state organs and institutions for preconceived outcomes has seriously undermined peoples' confidence in the regime and Bangladesh is already hanging on a very risky margin," Odhikar claimed.
"Further doubts about the intention of the regime can flare up serious political instability that may go beyond the control of such extra-constitutional government," it warned.
The human-rights watch group recommended that courts must be allowed to regain peoples' confidence by functioning independently on human rights as "enshrined in international covenants".
It said: "Repressive tactics against the dissenting political forces must be stopped immediately. Mass arrests must stop immediately and political leaders and activists released."
"The government must secure and guarantee individual rights of those arrested."
Odhikar said the approved Antiterrorism Ordinance must be repealed and the government must immediately consult with a wider section of the people to resolve issues considered problematic.
It is urgent, according to the nongovernmental organisation, that the Appellate Division review its own judgement to sustain the High Court's inherent and constitutional powers to hear bail petitions even in the cases under the emergency powers rules.
"Extrajudicial killings, torture and indiscriminate arrests should cease to continue."
Odhikar claimed it paid special attention to 'emergency', an extraordinary measure in itself that poses a major challenge to human rights, for the last 17 months, since the state of emergency was imposed on Jan 11, 200
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