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Same old antics

Staff Correspondent
BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury's court theatrics turned out to be the highlight for the audience at the International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday although his indictment was the feature of the day.
The outspoken BNP leader exploded on multiple occasions, insisted that he had placed his applications instead of his defence, and on several occasions exchanged verbal spats with the tribunal chairman.
It began with Salauddin Quader's defence counsel Fakhrul Islam taking the podium with eight petitions. Six of them were reviews of previous applications that have been rejected by the tribunal.
While the counsel kept insisting that the petitions be heard before the tribunal passed its order about indicting the BNP leader, tribunal Chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq did not agree with him and asked him to take his seat.
The counsel, however, "respectfully" declined to comply with the order and continued with his submission that the petition needed to be heard.
The tribunal chairman said the petitions would be heard once the order was passed.
Salauddin Quader, however, interrupted Justice Huq and said the court should listen to the petition. He complained that he had been in custody for 400 days and the tribunal needed to hear the petitions, one of which dealt with his "arbitrary" detention.
"Mr Chowdhury, please take your seat. We will later hear you at length," said Justice Nizamul Huq. "Please allow us to continue with the tribunal's duty."
After the tribunal chairman passed the indictment order, Salauddin Quader later insisted that he had placed the arguments for the petitions himself.
In the face of the BNP lawmaker's ceaseless insistence, the tribunal decided to hear his argument on why he should be allowed to place his petitions instead of his defence.
Salauddin argued that there was a legal provision that gave the accused the right to either present himself in court or take assistance from the defence.
"It is an option given to the accused, not to the prosecutors or to the tribunal," he said.
In response, Justice Huq passed an order stating that the provision says the accused can either present
himself or take assistance from the defence.
As Salauddin Quader has already engaged lawyers, it means he cannot conduct his own case in court, the order added.
The BNP lawmaker's antics continued in the afternoon when the prosecution appealed to the tribunal to initiate contempt proceedings against BNP leader MK Anwar for his statements.
Anwar, a former minister and present BNP policymaker, has been quoted as saying the tribunal had demonstrated an example of "jungle laws" by accepting statements of 15 witnesses given to the investigation officer as evidence.
Prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum told the tribunal the BNP leader had made the comments to impede the course of the trial and so it warranted a contempt of court procedure.
Salauddin Quader said he fully supported "Mr Malum" on the issue, and later expressed disappointment when the court did not take any action against Anwar.
"ft is very unfortunate if well-educated people like him make such comments," said Justice Huq.
"What should we do?" the tribunal chairman deliberated on the situation at hand.
The BNP leader stood up inside the dock and remarked that MK Anwar should be put behind bars as well, as it was getting lonely in there.
Justice Huq continued to say that people can criticise the law but cannot question the integrity of the tribunal.
"Absolutely right. I agree with that. Just because it is a jungle law, it doesn't mean it has resulted into a jungle tribunal," remarked Salauddin Quader.
Justice Huq then passed an order saying people should be more cautious about making comments on the tribunal.
The tribunal observed that MK Anwar was a former minister, a former cabinet secretary, a former deputy com-
missioner and a magistrate and therefore must have had an understanding of laws.
He must have been swayed by his sentiments when he made the statements, stated the order, which added that the tribunal believed Anwar had not read the law.
"But if he has read the law, we can only say sorry."
The order also stated that the tribunal expects Anwar and people like him to cooperate so that there may be a fairtrial.
Although it is an unexpected comment, the tribunal did not find anything that calls for action under the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973.
As soon as Justice Huq concluded the order, Salauddin Quader said: "This is far too less! This hampers the tribunal's tradition. I was completely with Mr Malum on this count."
The theatrics continued later in the afternoon from both the Chittagong MP and his counsel Fakhrul Islam, who at one point threatened to walk out of the court.
While placing arguments on a petition, the defence counsel claimed the court order did not accurately reflect the defence's submissions and the tribunal is not giving required consideration to the applications.
"I'll walk out!” said Fakhrul as he walked away from the podium with his documents.
"Mr Fakhrul, do not do anything contemptuous," said Justice Nizamul Huq.
"You know the consequences of a walkout," added the tribunal chairman later, "you can argue, but don't do anything that will disrespect the court."
Rezaul Karim, a colleague of Fakhrul, then took over and told the tribunal that it is the defence's misery that all of its applications have been rejected.
The tribunal assured the defence that it would hear their applications at length and fixed April 12 for the hearing.