Barrister Shyikh Mahdi Leads Workshop on Prosecution Strategy at Southeast University
The Department of Law, Southeast University, hosted a workshop titled “Prosecution of Crimes in Bangladesh: Strategies of Prosecutors,” conducted by Barrister Shyikh Mahdi, Prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh. The session provided practical insights into the classroom, walking students through the prosecutor’s work from the first information report to the closing argument.
Rather than a conventional lecture, the workshop was built around a single fictitious murder case, which participants worked through in stages: the investigation and the police docket, the marshalling of witnesses and evidence, the construction of a case theory, and the framing of final arguments under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Penal Code, and the Evidence Act. The design allowed third- and fourth-year students, who possess a grounding in the criminal legal system but little practical exposure, to see how a case is actually assembled and tested.
A central theme of the session was the distance between what happened and what can be proved. Mr. Mahdi took the participants through the discipline that defines prosecutorial practice in Bangladesh: how a prosecutor, working from a closed police file, selects and discards evidence, builds an interlocking chain of proof, prepares and protects witnesses against cross-examination, and anticipates the strategies of the defence. Particular attention was given to the recurring pressure points of a criminal trial, delayed complaints, dying declarations, hostile witnesses, confessions, forensic limits, and electronic evidence, and to the ways a prosecutor works around each to secure a conviction.
Inaugurated by Mr. Arfan Ahmed, Lecturer, Department of Law, the workshop was described as captivating and highly interactive, with participants engaging closely throughout. Students left with a clearer sense of the onerous responsibilities that prosecution carries, and of the craft that underlies it.
In her concluding remarks, Professor Dr. Farhana Helal Mehtab, Dean, School of Law, Southeast University, reaffirmed her commitment to organising further workshops across a range of legal issues, with the aim of sharpening the practical skills of the University’s law students. She thanked the resource person, Mr. Shyikh Mahdi, for his time and contribution, and wished him continued success.