I was just the fool: Bergman

Controversial journalist David Bergman has said he ‘was just the fool’ who impulsively took the mobile phone out of his pocket in the courtroom of an Appellate Division bench and was ordered to get out.

David Bergman David Bergman

Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury asked Bergman to leave as he was talking on phone just after the bench pronounced its verdict on Monday on Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mohammad Kamaruzzaman’s appeal against death sentence awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal.

He told the Briton working for the New Age newspaper as a special correspondent: “Phones are not allowed in the courtroom. But you’ve entered the courtroom with mobile phone and are also talking (on it).”

In a Facebook post, Bergman explained that he took his phone out of the pocket habitually.

“And suddenly within a few seconds of it (phone) being in my hand, Justice (AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury) Manik, one of the appellate court judges, shouted at me for doing so, telling me that no phones were allowed in the court,” he said.

Bergman, who is now facing a contempt of court charge at the ICT and was warned by the special court several times for his remarks on the war crimes trials in his blog, said: “Oh dear. Things for me go from bad to worse...”

He claimed that ICT Chief Investigator Abdul Hannan Khan had his mobile phone in his pocket in the courtroom.

“Indeed, I think just about everybody had one (mobile phone) in their pocket, since the guards were not checking at the door,” he said.

About the judge’s drawing his attention to the notice asking everyone not to enter the courtroom with mobile phone, he said: “I am not sure many, or any, are aware of the notice, or abide by it.”

“Anyway, I was just the fool who took it out of his pocket!!”

Bergman is the husband of Sara Hossain, a Supreme Court lawyer and daughter of Dr Kamal Hossain.

The four-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha upheld the ICT verdict awarding capital punishment to Kamaruzzaman, an Al-Badr commander during Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, for crimes against humanity.