Sticking to his guns, senior advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, also BNP chairperson’s adviser, on Wednesday said he had honestly made the statement over the ongoing war crimes trial and still he believes in it. Replying to the pre-contempt of court notice issued by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 over his impugned remarks, Khandker Mahbub said that his speech was misinterpreted by the petitioner, the ICT chief prosecutor. “My remarks have been misinterpreted by the petitioner without understanding the role of the judiciary and the judges engaged in dispensation of justice,” he said. On October 6, the tribunal, responding to a prosecution petition, issued a notice asking Khandker Mahbub to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for his alleged scandalous remarks on war crimes trial. The tribunal, however, had exempted the noted lawyer from appearing in person before it to explain his position over the war crimes trial, considering his status as elected vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Bar Council, a statutory body that regulates the lawyers. On October 1, immediately after the pronouncement of the ICT-1 judgment that had sentenced BNP policymaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury MP to death for crimes against humanity, including genocide, in 1971 Liberation War, Khandker Mahbub at a media briefing threatened to try all involved in the war crimes trial if BNP is voted to power, terming the war crimes trial farcical. Such ‘unwarranted’ remarks by Khandker Mahbub, also the former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, prompted the prosecution to file application before the tribunal seeking to take legal action against him. Upon scrutiny of the remarks aired in electronic media and carried in the newspapers the following day, the tribunal found three points to serve contempt notice as it appeared challenging the power of the jurisdiction of the tribunal, a deliberate threat to the judges conducting the war crimes and others involved in connection with the cases, and created hatred in the public mind to discredit the dispensation of justice. Khandker Mahbub said every citizen of a country has right to take legal action under the law of the land, if any false and fabricated evidence is produced in the court, which is not the whole truth, and thereby secured conviction and sentence of a person by the court, which should not go unpunished if found out to be true on proper investigation. Khandker Mahbub prayed for dismissing the petition made by the ICT chief prosecutor, accepting his explanation, as his speech over the war crimes trial in no way comes under the mischief of section 11 (4) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973. After receiving the reply, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, set December 24 for hearing on the contempt case. – UNB
