A petition has been filed with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to bring contempt of court proceedings afresh against Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury for his derogatory remarks about the tribunal.Several freedom fighters, including Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra artiste Monoronjon Ghoshal, and Ganajagaran Manch organisers filed the petition with the ICT registrar office on Monday.The other petitioners include freedom fighter Ali Azgarh and Nazrul Islam, Ganjagaran Manch organiser Kamal Pasha Chowdhury and FM Shaheen.The ICT-2 is likely to hear the petition on Tuesday. Earlier on June 10, the ICT-2 found Dr Zafruallah Chowdhury guilty of contempt of court for criticising the punishment of British journalist David Bergman and punished him keeping him standing in the court for an hour and fined him Tk 5,000.While talking to reporters after emerging from the court on that day, the Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder described the punishment as the proof of mental imbalance of the three tribunal judges.Observing that keeping an accused standing in the dock while delivering the verdict ‘impoliteness’, he had said, “There can’t be justice where judges can’t tolerate any criticism. It’s totally meaningless to keep any accused standing in the dock when the verdict is read out. This is prehistoric, medieval.”Describing Zafarullah’s remarks tantamount to the contempt of court, Monoronjon Ghoshal said a freedom fighter like Zafarullah cannot make such comments against the tribunal.On June 18, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 issued the warrant for the arrest of Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury as he failed to pay a fine of Tk 5,000 by June 17 as per the tribunal’s pervious order.Later on June 21, the tribunal withdrew the warrant as he submitted the Supreme Court order withholding the fine. On January 14, the ICT-2 issued a contempt notice against 49 people who had expressed concern through a statement published on daily Prothom Alo over the tribunal’s judgment to punish British citizen and journalist David Bergman of contempt of court.Based on their explanations, the tribunal on two past dates exonerated 25 from the allegation of contempt of court. The ICT-2 on April 1 drew contempt proceedings against the 23 noted citizens. Bergman, special reports’ editor of daily New Age, got the punishment for committing contempt of court on December 2, 2014, for his criticism of the trial process on his personal blog and thus demeaning the court.
