A report published yesterday recommended that pending cases under the repealed provisions of the Bangladesh Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act should be dropped.

The Clooney Justice Foundation’s TrialWatch Initiative and the Center for Governance Studies (CGS) jointly published the report, the first in a series on Bangladesh’s cyber laws.

“As the political transition process continues in Bangladesh, it is time to review the country’s successive draconian cyber laws. The interim government’s recent announcement to withdraw all ‘expression crime’ cases under the three cyber laws is a step forward in this regard. Published by CGS organizations in the right direction,” he said in a statement.

Bangladesh has long had laws that criminalize the dissemination of unambiguously “offensive” or “false” information or information that “disturbs law and order” or “harms religious beliefs” on online platforms, the statement said.

These penal provisions found form in a series of laws; first in the provisions of the ICT Act 2006, which was later amended by the Digital Security Act (DSA) in 2018, which was replaced by the Cyber ​​Security Act (CSA) in 2018. It was said in 2023.

Read the statement, although each of these changes was touted as a reform measure, the essence of the penal provisions remained the same.

The statement stated that although the ICT Act and Article 57 of the DSA have been repealed, more than 1,000 “expression-related” cases initiated under them are still ongoing, according to figures released by the interim government.

“While it is important to prosecute cyber crimes such as hacking, sexual harassment and other serious crimes, Bangladesh’s cyber security laws are very draconian and we demand that cases filed under these laws be quashed,” said Zillur Rahman, director general of CGS.

According to the statement, the joint report concluded that the principle of legality dictates that all cases pending under the ICT Act should be dismissed as there is no legal basis for them to proceed.

When a statute is repealed, the general rule under common law is that it is as if it had never existed. However, the report stated that the DSA has a “savings clause” that “keeps alive” the cases that were pending under the ICT Act when the DSA was passed, adding that this is clearly valid even though the CSA is also a “savings clause”. It is only for DSA cases and not ICT Act cases.

“There is no basis for the continuation of cases under the ICT Act. Even in the face of uncertainty, the principle of interpretation of criminal laws narrowly and in favor of the accused should mean that ICT Act cases are terminated. Resurgence of old cases under brutal circumstances TrialWatch expert and senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India Rebecca “The application of the law, especially against journalists, activists and political opponents, is an abuse of the legal process,” Mammen John said.

More generally, provisions dealing with “offensive” information, “fake news” or information that “disrupts law and order” likewise fail to survive scrutiny. That’s why courts in different countries around the world are striking down laws that have long been used to criminalize speech.

The interim government of Bangladesh has a historic opportunity to restore the rule of law in the country in line with its human rights obligations by immediately terminating all pending cases under the ICT Act, the statement said.