Firing a broadside at BNP chairperson’s adviser Khandkar Mahbub Hossain for his statement threatening to try all involved in the war crimes trial if the party is voted to power, chief prosecutor Golam Arif Tipu on Wednesday urged the ICT-1 to take steps to prevent the lawyer from making controversial comments against the judiciary and judges.
Terming Mahbub’s Tuesday’s statement unexpected and unwarranted, Tipu said he (Mahbub) had made irresponsible statement about the judiciary and judges to foil the efforts to establish the rule of law.
He urged the International Crimes Tribunal-1 to take legal steps on the matter in the interest of the judiciary.
Interrupting the chief prosecutor, Justice Jahangir Hossain, one of the members of the three-member tribunal, said, “Look how people are being made fools campaigning that the judgment has been written by the Law Ministry.”
“Are we so incompetent to write a judgment?” he questioned saying,
“Forget about me for the sake of debate since I’ve elevated to the bench from the bar, but my two other brothers who joined the profession as judges and functioning for long in the judiciary.”
“Such a smearing campaign is very sad, very bad,” lamented Justice Jahangir adding, “These things need to be addressed as there is a very huge investment and conspiracy behind it.”
At this point, prosecutor Zead Al Malum pleaded for drawing contempt of court proceedings against Barrister Fakhrul Islam, the counsel for war criminal condemned convict BNP MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, his wife and son as they made statements through both print and electronic media showing leaked judgment claiming that the verdict was retrieved from the computer of the Law Ministry much before the pronouncement of the judgment and that was actually written by it.
“Their acts were nothing but a preplanned drama to malign the tribunal and tarnish its image among people both at home and abroad,” the Prosecutor said urging the tribunal to take legal action against them.
Hearing the prosecutors, the tribunal declined to issue suo moto action saying, “Since there is a move to make us controversial, you better come up with a written application and we’ll see it.
Meanwhile, ICT registrar AKM Nasiruddin Mahmud on Wednesday at a press briefing admitted that the draft judgment in part on war crimes accused SQ Chowdhury was leaked out from the tribunal.
Terming the leakage a mater of grave concern, the registrar said it is also a clear threat to the security and transparency of the tribunal.
The Registrar, also the spokesperson for the tribunals, informed that a General Diary (GD) was filed with the Shahbagh Police Station today (Wednesday) to take legal steps subject to investigation.
Source: UNB Connect
