Tureen removed from post of ICT prosecutor
Tureen Afroz, a prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal, has been removed from her post for “serious misconduct”.
The Law, Justice and Parliament Affairs Ministry in a circular yesterday said she “breached discipline and professional conduct and committed serious misconduct”.
The circular is available on the ministry website.
The chief prosecutor’s office in May last year withdrew Tureen from all cases and asked her to submit all documents to the office.
The chief prosecutor’s office had also requested the law ministry to launch an investigation into an allegation that she held a secret meeting with a war crime accused.
A letter, signed by Chief Prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo, said that Tureen had met war crimes accused and former acting director general of NSI Wahidul Haque at a hotel in the capital.
Wahidul recorded the conversation between him and Tureen. After he was arrested in April last year, an investigation agency and the prosecutor’s office got access to the record, officials of the agency and prosecutor’s office said.
Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday told The Daily Star that the allegation against Tureen was found to be true.
The ICT-1 sent Wahidul to jail on April 25 last year, a day after he was arrested on charges of committing crimes in 1971.
The tribunal last month indicted Wahidul, who allegedly was a captain of the Pakistan army during the war.
Acclaimed war crimes prosecutor Tureen joined the team in 2013.
WHAT LAW MINISTER SAYS
Law Minister Anisul Huq said there was a serious allegation against Tureen of abusing her position.
Besides, she made an objectionable and irresponsible comment while discussing important and confidential matters regarding the particular war crimes case against the accused, he told The Daily Star without mentioning which accused.
The minister said an in-house enquiry committee investigated the allegations.
WHAT TUREEN SAYS
“I had been given an important task in the war crimes trial and I think I have discharged my duties with one hundred percent honesty,” she told this correspondent yesterday.
About the allegations mentioned in the law ministry circular, she said, “I really don’t know what they meant.
“As far as I know, I have not been involved in any misconduct or broken any professional rule.
“I don’t know whether any probe committee had been formed [to investigate the allegations]. I was not even given the scope for self-defence.
Regarding this, the law minister said the enquiry committee members didn’t feel that it was necessary to contact Tureen for the probe.
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