3 leaders jailed

International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday sentenced “absconding” Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad and Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan to three months' imprisonment and fined each of them Tk 3,000 for contempt of court.
Hours after the judgement was delivered, the Jamaat called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal for today.
The court also sentenced Selim Uddin, arrested assistant secretary general of Jamaat Dhaka city unit, to simple imprisonment until the court ended its session for the day, which was 12:35pm yesterday.
It also fined him Tk 1,000.
He had apologised to the court for the provocative and derogatory comments he had made about the court.
The Jamaat leaders have to pay the fine within seven days from yesterday or else serve two more weeks in jail. The sentence of Rafiqul and Azad will begin from the date of their arrest or from the date of their surrender before the tribunal.
It all began on February 4, a day before the tribunal delivered the verdict against Jamaat leader Quader Mollah. Jamaat leaders Selim and Azad at a Jamaat rally in Motijheel made derogatory and provocative comments about the tribunals and ongoing trials there.
Later in the day, Rafiqul joined in and issued a press release with similar comments about the tribunal and its cases.
On February 7, the tribunal asked the trio to explain as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for their comments.
The court had issued the notice on its own following reports published in The Daily Star and Bangla daily Prothom Alo on February 5.
On February 5, the Prothom Alo quoted Selim as saying, “There is no scope for the controversial tribunal to deliver any verdict if the country is to be saved from a civil war.”
The daily quoted Azad as saying at the same programme, “This tribunal cannot exist any more.”
The Daily Star, in a report headlined, “Jamaat warns of civil war”, quoted Rafiqul as saying, “Don't push the country into a civil war by delivering one-sided verdicts against our leaders. If anything happens to Quader Mollah, every house will be on fire.”
On March 6, the court ordered the police to arrest the Jamaat leaders and produce them before the court for “deliberately avoiding” appearance before the tribunal in connection with the contempt of court ruling.
Selim was arrested but the police claimed that Rafiqul and Azad were on the run.
On June 2, Selim apologised unconditionally before the tribunal.
About Selim, the tribunal in its order yesterday said, “In the name of freedom of speech, [he] threatened the rule of law and lawful authority of the tribunal … By such utterances, he clearly intended to attack and disparage the lawful authority of the tribunal. This is seriously contemptuous indeed.”
“But since he offered unconditional apology before this tribunal we take a lenient view in punishing him,” the court said.
However, Tajul Islam, counsel for Selim, he would file a writ petition before the High Court challenging the judgment against his client since there was no provision for appeal regarding the matter.
About Azad's remark, the court said Azad, as a public representative, has minimum acumen about the judiciary and the law.
“But his utterance at a public meeting and his subsequent action in not appearing before the tribunal, in spite of taking adjournment to that effect on several occasions, certainly constitute and prove contempt of this tribunal beyond reasonable doubt,” it said.
Regarding Rafiqul, the court said, “He has made open threats against the adjudicators of the tribunal in a particular case as well as threatened to wage a civil war, which are tantamount to provoking and inciting anarchy in the country and it certainly constitutes the offence of contempt of this tribunal beyond reasonable doubt.”
“The act of flouting and disobedience of order of a court of law itself is contemptuous.”
The police had failed to arrest Azad and Rafiqul even though they had been leading the lives of high profile political leaders. They duo had been seen in public, the tribunal said yesterday.
Azad even attended a parliament session recently and had delivered a speech at a public meeting in Motijheel in May and law enforcers had provided the meeting with security.
Meanwhile, the Jamaat in a press release claimed that ruling lawmakers and ministers were not asked to show up before the court in connection with contempt. It said its leaders did not show up before the court due to security reasons.
It claimed that the hartal was called to protest the “nationwide mass arrests and mass torture” of its leaders and to demand the release of its arrested leaders and restoration of the caretaker government system.
It may be mentioned that only Rafiqul and Azad had not apologised to Tribunal-2 after contempt rules were issued. Even ministers like MK Alamgir, Suranjit Sengupta and Matia Chowdhury had sought the tribunal's forgiveness in connection with contempt.
Meanwhile, two criminals riding on a motorbike hurled three handmade bombs at the tribunal building's entrance gate near Shishu Academy last night.  "One of the bombs exploded," said Sirajul Islam, OC of Shahbagh Police Station.