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War Trial Comments

BNP's Mahbub under fire

Prosecution to file contempt petition

Staff Correspondent
The prosecution yesterday decided to file a petition seeking contempt proceedings against BNP chairperson's adviser Khandker Mahbub Hossain for his comments relating to the war crimes trial while several eminent citizens expressed concern over the comments.
Following the delivery of the death sentence to BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury over his war crimes, Mahbub on Tuesday said that if voted to power, the party would try those involved in the trial.
"The verdict against Salauddin is politically motivated and farcical," said Mahbub, also vice-chairman of Bangladesh Bar Council.
International Crimes Tribunal-1 awarded him the capital punishment for committing crimes against humanity and genocide during the Liberation War in 1971.
Soon after the tribunal sat yesterday, Chief Prosecutor
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Ghulam Arieff Tipoo drew its attention to the remarks made by Mahbub in response to the judgement.
Prosecutor Zead Al Malum placed several newspaper reports before the court and the judges went through them.
"What he [Mahbub] said before the media is unexpected and unwarranted," said Tipoo, seeking legal action against Mahbub.
The tribunal then asked the prosecution to file an appeal in this regard.
Prosecutor Tureen Afroz told The Daily Star in the evening that the prosecution were preparing to file a contempt of court petition against Mahbub. They are expected to file the petition today.
Meanwhile, eminent
rights activist Sultana Kamal said trial and punishment of the war criminals had long been a national aspiration.
"The people, who are holding out such threats, have taken a stance against the national interest and the nation.”
These people have exposed their character by giving such threats, said Sultana Kamal, who had testified as a prosecution witness in the war crimes case against former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam.
"We are very much concerned about the fate of the country if these people come to power," added Sultana Kamal, also a former advisor to a caretaker government.
"I can't believe that a lawyer can make such a comment," eminent jurist
M Amir-Ul Islam said.
Shahriar Kabir, executive president of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee that has been campaigning for war crimes trial since 1992, said, "His [Mahbub] comment is nothing but treason and contempt of court. He should be brought to book."
By making such comments, Mahbub had instigated BNP cadres against the judges, witnesses and other people involved with the trial, said Shahriar, who was the first prosecution witness in the case against convicted war criminal Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.
"We are also very much concerned about the security of the judges," he noted.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam said Mahbub's com-
ment was tantamount to contempt of court and an "implicit threat" to the judges and lawyers.
In a press briefing at the secretariat, Quamrul, himself a lawyer, said Mahbub's comments went against the ethics of the legal profession and asked him to withdraw them.
Mahbub was one of the public prosecutors at the Special Tribunal that in the early 1970s conducted the trial of collaborators of the Pakistan army under the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunal) Order, 1972.
Forty years later, he became a lawyer for war criminals Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Delawar Hossain Sayedee and Abdul Quader Mollah.