Contempt charges sought against Jamaat

In an unprecedented move, the prosecution yesterday filed a petition with the International Crimes Tribunal-1 seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Jamaat-e-Islami, three Jamaat and two Shibir leaders and a lawyer representing war crimes convict ATM Azharul Islam over a hartal and comment centring the verdict.

“Since Jamaat called hartal after the verdict, we have sought contempt rule against the party and five others,” said prosecutor Zead Al Malum.

The Jamaat leaders are acting ameer Moqbul Ahmed, acting secretary general Shafiqur Rahman and Nayeb-e-Ameer Mujibur Rahman while those of pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir are President Abdul Jabbar and Secretary General Atiqur Rahman.

“We have sought contempt rule against (the counsel) Tajul (Islam) for his indecent and unprofessional comments before the media over the verdict,” he added.

Malum said they believe Tajul's “derogatory” comment over the verdict was contemptuous and calling a hartal after the verdict was also tantamount to contempt of court.

The three-member tribunal on Tuesday handed down capital punishment on Jamaat leader Azharul, following which Jamaat called a dawn-to-dusk hartal on Wednesday and yesterday.

Tajul on Wednesday told the media that he has always been respectful towards the tribunals and did not mention anything that could malign the tribunal's image.

The tribunals, on several occasions, said calling hartals and engaging in violence could not be a way to react over any decision or verdict of the courts.

Even before announcing the verdict on Tuesday, the tribunal suggested following legal procedures instead of engaging in violence if the verdict went against anyone.

But Jamaat called hartals after every verdict in the war crimes cases against their leaders and on many occasions Jamaat and Shibir men resorted to violence.

So far, eight top Jamaat leaders have been convicted of war crimes and Jamaat enforced 30 days of shutdowns in the last two years protesting the verdicts by the two special tribunals and Supreme Court on war crimes cases.

However, the prosecution, for the first time yesterday sought action against Jamaat over the issue.

On behalf of the International Crimes Tribunals chief prosecutor, a six-member prosecution team submitted the petition at the tribunal's registrar office around 3:30pm.

Deputy Registrar of the tribunal Arunav Chakravarty said they have received the petition and it would be placed before the tribunal on Monday.

Tajul faced contempt proceedings several times and each time the tribunals cautioned and pardoned him.