BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Ahmed on Thursday said the fascists and their allies must be ousted from the judiciary first in a bid to ensure the actual independence of the judiciary in the country.

“To make judicial independence truly effective, fascists must be ousted from the lower and upper judiciary,” he told reporters in the afternoon after the ninth day of the second round of reform dialogue at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.

Salahuddin alleged that certain collaborators of fascist forces are still in the lower judiciary, who unlawfully punished political activists, journalists and people from all classes and professions through night court sessions. “We should not protect these fascists (judges) anymore. We want a judiciary -- both of the upper and lower tiers-- free from allies of the fascists,” he said.

He said job termination, transfer or departmental actions are sufficient against the allies of the fascists rather they will have to be tried for their individual criminal liability. “Their individual criminal liability must be fixed. It’s not enough to just terminate their jobs — they must also be held accountable and tried for their criminal offenses,” he added.

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Only then, Salahuddin argued, can genuine judicial independence be implemented. “Otherwise, if these fascists remain in both tiers of the judiciary, they will continue to be the sole beneficiaries of whatever reforms we undertake to ensure the independence of the judiciary. That is our clear position.”

He warned that if the judiciary is run by them, even the strictest of laws will be misused. Many of these fascist collaborators — some involved in serious crimes, even crimes against humanity — are easily securing bail from the district level court to the High Court. These things (granting bails) are done by the allies of the fascists.

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The BNP leader said they want a judiciary to be completely independent --constitutionally and legally-- and one whose benefits are enjoyed by the people. “But first, these fascists must be removed from the judiciary,” he said.