The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Thursday asked the assigned local counsel for the New York-based 5 Human Rights Watch (HRW) to submit its reply on the show cause notice in order to contest the contempt of court case before it by April 10 sans formal affidavit.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, came up with the order while disposing of the petition seeking further time for submitting the reply accomplishing affidavit formally at the Bangladesh mission in the USA.
Responding to a contempt petition placed by chief prosecutor Golam Arif Tipu with prosecutors Zead Al-Malum, Sultan Mahmud, Tureen Afroz7 and Taposh Kanti Boul, on September 2 last year, the tribunal issued notices upon the HRW and its two officials to explain why contempt proceedings shall not be drawn against them for publishing a ‘scandalous’ report on its judgment against ex-Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam, a 1971 war crimes convict.
The HRW, a global rights body, represented by its board of directors, and its executive director (Asia Division) Brad Adams and Associate (Asia Division) Storm Tiv have been made opposite parties in the contempt case.
After a month of the pronouncement of judgment, the HRW on August 16 last year released a report on its website, headlined ‘Bangladesh: Azam conviction based on flawed proceedings: Analysis outlines how fair trial rights of accused seriously compromised’.
The report claims that the trial of the former Jamaat-e-Islami chief was deeply flawed and it had not met the international standards.
It says: “The judges improperly conducted an investigation on behalf of the prosecution and expressed concern over collusion and bias among prosecutors and judges.”
The HRW also expresses concern over the “failure to take steps to protect defence witnesses,” and “lack of evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
It further claims that the defence counsels were not aware of the “investigation” and were thus unable to comment on or challenge the evidence which was a serious violation of article-14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Bangladesh was a party.
On July 15 last year, the tribunal sentenced Ghulam Azam to 90 years’ imprisonment finding him guilty of all five charges of the 1971 crimes against humanity and genocide against him.
War crimes convict Ghulam Azam has appealed against the verdict before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court while the prosecution appealed against inadequate sentencing of the former Jamaat chief. Both the appeals are now pending before the apex court for disposal.
Advocate M Asaduzzaman appeared for the global rights body HRW.
Source: UNB Connect
