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The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has asked 50 people, who had expressed misgivings after British journalist David Bergman had been sentenced for contempt of court, to explain their stand.
Published : 14 Jan 2015, 06:21 PM
They have been told to do so by Jan 27 either by appearing before the tribunal or through their lawyers.
The ICT-2, headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan, had passed the order, said the tribunal's Registrar Md Mostafizur Rahman on Wednesday.
He said copies of the order would be sent to 11 of those people through the foreign ministry, as they currently live abroad.
Bangladesh missions in the countries they live in will gather their explanations and forward them to the tribunal.
The ICT-2 convicted Bergman on Dec 2 last year of contempt.
On Dec 20, Bengali daily 'Prothom Alo' published a report on the apprehensions expressed by the 50 citizens. The New York Times, too, carried an editorial along the same lines on Dec 23.
The tribunal, which felt the reports cast aspersions on the judicial system of Bangladesh, had summoned the ‘full versions’ of the statements from the daily.
The daily, then, gave the tribunal a detailed resume and the address of Hana Shams Ahmed, who had emailed the statement on behalf of the 50 citizens on Dec 18.
Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik submitted to the tribunal the names and addresses of 49 of the 50 people on Wednesday.
Human-rights activist and women’s leader Khushi Kabir had, in the mean time, dissociated herself from the concerned citizens, saying she did not subscribe to the views expressed in the statement.
The tribunal would decide its next step once it went through the explanations after they were filed, the registrar said.
