FFs, campaigners for war crime trials among accused

A lawyer representing two of the 50 eminent citizens who expressed concern in a statement over Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman's sentence for contempt of court yesterday raised strong objection to a part of a prosecution submission.

The prosecution had argued that the statement of the accused "serves the interest of the unholy organised domestic and international quarters involved in baseless criticism of the tribunal's proceedings and law".

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The defence yesterday rebutted saying, the prosecution should have taken into consideration, before bringing the "baseless allegation", the fact that there were freedom fighters and campaigners for war crimes trial among the signatories, who were dignified people in the society.

Hearing submissions from the prosecution and defence counsels and three of the accused, International Crimes Tribunal-2 fixed June 10 to pass the final order on the contempt of court proceedings it initiated against 23 of the 50 on April 1.  Meanwhile, one of the accused admitted that  there might have been some  discrepancies between the  Bangla and English versions of the statement due to incorrect translation and that there were some lack of coordination, errors and irresponsibility.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan also asked all the alleged contemnors living in Bangladesh to be present at court on June 10.

If convicted, the 23 may face the highest one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to Tk 5,000 or both. On December 2, 2014, the tribunal found Bergman, editor (special reports) of New Age, guilty of contempt for two of his blog posts of January 2013 on the verdict of Abul Kalam Azad, known as Bachchu Razakar.

It sentenced him to imprisonment "till rising of the court" that day and fined him Tk 5,000.

On December 20, 2014, the daily Prothom Alo ran a report titled "50 people express concern over Bergman's punishment" on the basis of the statement, which observed that the tribunal's order would restrict freedom of expression.

One signatory, Khusi Kabir, later withdrew her name. The tribunal exonerated 26 signatories who sought unconditional apology.

Yesterday the defence lawyer, Akhtar Imam said the prosecution's allegation about the signatories was "very unfortunate."

"The prosecution should have thought (about it) before talking about them," said Imam.

The tribunal responded saying that they were also aware about the status of the signatories and their contribution to society and the newspapers published the statement as they were "very important persons".

"But they can also make mistakes," said Justice Hassan, adding, "No one is above law, and law will take its own course."

STATEMENT IN BANGLA AND ENGLISH

Following the tribunal's order, Hana Shams Ahmed, one of the signatories who sent the statement to the media, on Tuesday submitted the original statement, one written in Bangla and the other in English.

The tribunal found some discrepancies between the two versions. Prothom Alo published the report on the basis of that written in English.

Imam yesterday said most of the signatories gave their consent reading the statement written in Bangla and his clients neither read the one in English nor gave consent to it.

"The matter involved 50 people. Some might not have read the whole thing," said Imam.

"You (signatories) are responsible persons. Why would you be irresponsible? Why would you not read (the statement) before giving a signature?" said Justice Hassan.

"They should have done that," admitted Imam.

Hana said, "All the signatories gave their consent to the one written in Bangla.  I did not take anyone's consent over the one written in English."

"You all behaved irresponsibly…Why have you taken the matter lightly," asked Justice Hassan.

ADMITTING IRRESPONSIBILITY

Shahidul Alam, one of the alleged contemners, said, "However, we cannot disown the English one."

"There are some lack of coordination, errors and irresponsibleness...However, only Hana or a single person is not responsible (for it). We all are responsible for it," he added.