Before the International Crimes Tribunal 2 handed down a death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed Wednesday, it gave a seven minute statement regarding the comments of counsels, movements against its verdicts, and comments in the media.
The tribunal cautioned both prosecution and defence not to use words that could be considered as contempt of court. It asked both sides not to use the word “reject” while verbalising their reaction on the judgment.
However, a defence lawyer used such words after the announcement of verdict against Mujaheed Wednesday.
While Tribunal Chair Justice Obaidul Hassan was placing this observation, only a handful of junior lawyers on the defence team were present. Their seniors did not turn up because of “unavoidable circumstances.” Jamaat enforced a countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike Wednesday.
“Hartal on verdict day has become a routine phenomenon. The senior defence counsel who conduct the cases do not come showing excuse of hartal on any verdict day,” Justice Hassan said.
“There is a tendency to reject the verdict if any party is not satisfied with it. You have the opportunity to appeal to higher court. If you are not satisfied, go there,” he said.
The tribunal criticised those who demanded death sentence by chanting slogans on the streets and on TV channels and said slogans or chaos in the name of hartals cannot change the judgment.
Justice Hassan said the people who go to talk shows on TV channels at midnight do not read the verdict but comment on it anyway.
“We have the limitation that we cannot go out and talk openly like them,” he added.
“Remember this; the court’s arm is long enough. If the court feels, it can take steps against these kind of comments anytime,” Justice Hassan said.
The tribunal also remarked that it was very happy with the argument session of the trial. Prosecutor Tureen Afroz and defence counsel Imran Siddiq had done well, the tribunal remarked.
Opinion leaders took the court’s observation positively, saying reaction could be expressed in soft words.
Nasiruddin Yusuf Bachchu, a freedom fighter and president of Sammilito Sanskritik Jote, said: “We have the right to protest, but we cannot reject a judgement, or use offensive words against it. We will protest, express our observations, but we will also use words safely.
“The tribunal is our achievement. We do not want to use unpleasant words, rather, we want to use safe words, but we will continue our movement,” he said.
Dhaka University teacher Prof Muntassir Mamun said: “We demanded the trial of war criminals, and the trials are ongoing. If we believe in the due process of law, we have to accept the verdicts, it doesn’t matter whether they are acceptable to us or not.”
He told the Dhaka Tribune that people could protest against a verdict, and appeal to the apex court, but they cannot reject it.
“However, we can protest against judgments without using offensive words.” he added.
Regarding the court’s observation on TV talk shows, Mamun said: “Those who argue about a judgment, always speak without being informed about the full text of the verdict. Thus, they generate confusion by spreading information without reading the full text.”
