Skype Scandal
War crimes trial not made questionable
Say 3 of 4 BBC Bangladesh Sanglap discussants
Three of the four-member panel at a BBC Bangladesh Sanglap yesterday opined that the leakage of the Skype conversation between Justice Md Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin would not raise questions about the ongoing war crimes trial.
The remaining member, Prof Abdul Latif Masum of Jahangirnagar University's Department of Government and Politics, opined that the trial had already become questionable as Justice Nizamul resigned.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, an adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia; Assistant Prof Tureen Afroz of Brac University's School of Law; and State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam gave the same opinion at the dialogue held in the capital's Bangla Academy.
Justice Nizamul resigned from the International Crimes Tribunal-1 chairman post on December 11. Two days ago, Bangla national daily Amar Desh started publishing “transcript of Skype conversation†of Justice Nizamul with expatriate Bangladeshi Ziauddin, a Brussels-based law expert on international crimes.
Qamrul and Tureen said the leakage was part of the continuous conspiracy against the 1971 war crimes trial.
On the first question, that whether the leakage would make the trial questionable, Mahbub, also the Bangladesh Bar Council vice chairman, said the leakage “tarnished†the judiciary's image but the trial proceeding would not be hindered.
“It was good not to engage in such dialogue...I am happy that he (Justice Nizamul) stepped down taking the responsibility...however, it (the resignation) would not raise questions (on the trial),†he said.
Tureen thought that the conversation did not contain anything that could raise questions about the trial. “The publication of the conversation is evidence of the continuous plot being hatched against the trial.â€
On the second question, that whether it was right to publish a person's personal conversation in the name of press freedom, Mahbub and Latif said newspapers could publish such conversations if it was a matter of public interest.
Tureen agreed, but said what was published about Justice Nizamul was not a matter of public interest as he did not mention anything which could influence the trial.
Qamrul said hacking someone's personal conversation and its publication was an offence as per the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006 and investigations were going on to find those involved.
BBC Bangladesh Sanglap is a programme where ordinary citizens have open discussions with political leaders and policymakers on contemporary issues.
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