The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Monday allowed a time petition holding back for five weeks the hearing on the contempt of court case facing by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York–based global rights body, over releasing a ‘scandalous’ report on its judgment against war criminal Ghulam Azam. As the matter came up for hearing, advocate M Asaduzzaman, the engaged counsel for the HRW and its two officials, moved an eight-week time petition for reply to the contempt notice for its report, captioned ‘Bangladesh: Azam Conviction Based on flawed proceedings’. The counsel also told the tribunal that he did not receive the ICT notice that had asked HRW and its two officials to explain as to why contempt proceedings under section 11 (4) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 shall not be initiated against them for releasing globally a ‘scandalous’ report on its judgment against ex-Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam, a 1971 war crimes convict. The ICT in its contempt notice said, “We’re of the opinion that there are sufficient grounds before us to draw up contempt proceedings against the HRW, represented by its Board of Directors and its two officials — Brad Adams, Executive Director, Asia Division and Storm Tiv, Associate, Asia Division.” On August 20, the prosecution under the ICT filed the contempt petition and the tribunal issued the contempt of court notice on September 2. On July 15, the ICT-1 sentenced Ghulam Azam to 90 years’ imprisonment finding him guilty of all five charges of the 1971 crimes against humanity and genocide against him. 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. After a month of pronouncement of the judgment, the HRW on August 16 published a report on its website headlined ‘Bangladesh: Azam conviction based on flawed proceedings: Analysis outlines how fair trial rights of accused seriously compromised’, claimed that the trial of the former Jamaat-e-Islami chief was deeply flawed and it had not met the international standards. It said 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 expressed concern over the “failure to take steps to protect defence witnesses”, and “lack of evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.” It also claimed 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. – UNB
