By retaining vague and broadly applicable definition of ‘terrorist activities’ and reducing ‘terrorism’ to merely a question of crime punishable by death, the Amendment Bill makes the Anti-Terrorism Act even more vulnerable to the worst kind of abuses, said FIDH and Odhikar. The monitoring work of FIDH and Odhikar over the years has indicated a large potential for abuse and violations of due process in the criminal justice system in Bangladesh. The widening of the scope of crimes punishable by death thus carries the tremendous risk of irreversible miscarriage of justice. The Act of 2009 has already been abused by the government to repress political opponents, journalist and other dissenting voices. “When the Anti-Terrorism Ordinance was first promulgated by the military-backed Caretaker Government, we raised concerns regarding its potential for abuse, which proved to be true as we have witnessed a trend of persistent criminalisation of popular dissents and the tendency to reduce complex social, economic, political and cultural grievances into a purely criminal matter,” said Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary of Odhikar. “The Amended Bill as it stands now will be more repressive and by its very nature most likely will turn into a nightmare of abuse and violence jeopardizing social and political stability, instead of strengthening human security.” “Experiences in several countries, shows that the criminalization of opinions expressed online through social media or blogs, is not only a violation of freedom of expression and the right to privacy; it also represents a new pattern of persecution of any voice of dissent, as well as human rights defenders”, said Karim Lahidji, FIDH president. More generally, the definition of ‘terrorism’ contained in this new amendment of the Anti-Terrorism Act goes much beyond internationally-accepted standards, which opens the door to an arbitrary application of the act”, Mr. Lahidji added.   http://www.fidh.org/bangladesh‐new‐amendment‐to‐anti‐terrorism‐act‐gags‐freedom‐of‐expression‐ 13457   2