The Office of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal has requested all concerned to refrain from reporting news without understanding the proper meaning of the law or by misinterpreting it.
This request was made in a press release signed by the office’s administrative officer, Md Masud Rana, on Tuesday.
According to the press release, some media outlets misrepresented remarks made by ICT Chief Prosecutor Advocate Tajul Islam.
They reported that the chief prosecutor said there was no mass murder in July, which, the office said, is a clear distortion and misinformation regarding his statement.
“The chief prosecutor clearly said that mass and systematic killings, what is commonly referred to as 'gono hotta' in Bangla, did occur in July in Bangladesh. However, under international law, ‘genocide’ specifically refers to the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, commonly known as ethnic cleansing,” the statement said.
It further clarified that the chief prosecutor did not bring charges of "genocide" (ie, ethnic or group extermination) in this case, but rather charged the incidents as “crimes against humanity,” which includes mass and systematic killings.
