Staff Reporter :
Fourteen of the 50 prominent citizens of the country, who had earlier issued a statement expressing concern over the conviction of British journalist David Burgman for contempt, have unconditional apology at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
Earlier, the 14 citizens were asked to appear before the war crimes tribunal to explain their stand through lawyers before January 27. In view of that, they tendered unconditional apology on Tuesday.
They are: Constitutional expert Dr Shahdeen Malik, former caretaker government adviser M Hafiz Uddin, General Secretary of ‘Sujon’ Badiul Alam Majumder, former caretaker government adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, University teachers Imtiaz Ahmed, Amena Mohsin and Asif Nazrul, National Coordinator of ‘Bangladesh Shishu Bikash Kendra’ Nayla Jaman Khan, Shahnaz Huda, environmental lawyer Rizwana Hasan, human rights activist Zakir Hossain, singer Arup Rahi, writer Shahin Akhter and rights activist Ilora Dewan.
Meanwhile, ten people, including health activist Zafrullah Chowdhury, however, have submitted a statement in the tribunal stating that they would argue their case themselves.
On the other hand, the 25 other sought time through their lawyer Anisul Hasan to explain their position.
Lawyer M Shamsul Haque pleaded for unconditional forgiveness on behalf of Dr Shahdeen Malik and M Hafiz Uddin yesterday.
The judges had ordered the British citizen to remain standing in the court for the whole day and fined him Tk 5,000. The judges had also told Bergman to refrain from writing on ‘historically settled issue’. International Crimes Tribunal-2 convicted Bergman on Dec 2, 2014 for running a propaganda campaign to make the war crimes court controversial. It is to be noted that on January 14, International Crimes Tribunal-2 asked for a valid explanation from 49 reputed citizens of the country as a result of their concern over the punishment of British journalist David Burgman, who is at present residing in Bangladesh.
This verdict was given under the leadership of Justice Obaidul Hasan. On December 20, Bengali daily ‘Prothom Alo’ published a report on the apprehensions expressed by the 50 citizens.
On that day, at a news briefing, the Register and spokesperson of the tribunal, M. Mostafizur Rahman, said according to the order of the tribunal, Dr Shahdeen Malik, who is the lawyer of supreme court, and human rights worker Hana Shams Ahmed have given the address of 50 citizens.
Regarding this matter, in a following order the tribunal said, except for Khushi Kabir, the other citizens have been asked to give their statement by January 27 and they have to come to court in person or give a valid explanation via lawyers to justify the reason behind their statement.
Among the citizens, 11 are at present outside the country. Direction has been given to send them the tribunal order via Foreign Ministry.
