Bergman pays fine for contempt
Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman today paid Tk 5,000 fine as per the verdict delivered by International Crimes Tibunal-2 for his contempt of court.
Bergman paid the fine through the Supreme Court branch of Sonali Bank and informed the ICT registrar, via a letter, this afternoon, Arunava Chakraborty, deputy registrar of the ICT, told The Daily Star.
Daily New Age journalist Bergman was found guilty of contempt on December 2 for his blog post that demeaned the tribunal trying war criminals of 1971.
He was kept imprisoned for the court session of December 2 and additionally penalised with Tk 5,000 fine – to be cleared within a week of the order.
Bergman, editor (special reports) of the daily, was asked to pay the fine within the next seven working days from December 2. Otherwise, he will have to spend seven days in jail.
The proceedings against the journalist began in April after the court found “prima facie elements of contempt” in Bergman's three write-ups posted in his personal blog in November 2011 and January 2013.
SC lawyer Abul Kalam Azad filed the contempt petition, attaching copies of the three blog posts, in which he questioned the Liberation War death tolls.
One article was on the indictment order of Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee and other two on the verdict on Bachchu Razakar.
Bergman, in his post on Sayedee's indictment, made “relentless efforts to justify that the tribunal was absolutely wrong to mention three million were killed and 2,00,000 women raped in the 1971 war”, the petition said.
He made “unfair' and “scandalous” post-judgment criticism about the absentia trial of Bachchu intending to lower tribunal's authority by questioning the performance of its judicial duties, it added.
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