The International Crimes Tribunal has received the explanation of Ahmed Ziauddin, an expatriate Bangladeshi legal expert currently based in Belgium, regarding his Skype conversation with an ICT chairman on a war crime trial.
Acknowledging the receipt, the three-member ICT 2, led by Justice Obaidul Hasan, on Monday set May 19 for passing an order on Ziauddin’s reply.
However, the tribunal did not disclose the content of Ziauddin’s submission.
The other two judges of the tribunal are Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Judge M Shahinur Islam.
ICT 2 on January 3 issued the suo moto notice, asking Ziauddin to explain why legal action would not be taken against him on charge of obstructing the fair process of the war crimes cases.
The tribunal had set February 7 the deadline for him to submit his explanations through the Bangladesh mission in Brussels and asked the foreign ministry for necessary compliance on February 14.
The tribunal ordered the foreign ministry to ensure submission of Ziauddin’s explanation on April 30. It asked the ministry to submit his explanation as soon as possible, saying: “The tribunal came to know that Ziauddin submitted his explanation to the embassy of Bangladesh in Brussels but the tribunal registrar was yet to receive it.”
Ahmed Ziauddin, who is also an expert on war crimes law, allegedly had conversation with former ICT 1 chairman Justice Nizamul Huq over Skype and made “fallacious, offensive and unfounded remark” involving the judges of ICT 2.
Justice Nizamul resigned from his post after the conversation was published in a daily newspaper. Influential UK-based magazine The Economist also claimed that they had received audio files of the conversation.