Sukhoronjon Bali was initially a witness for prosecution who went missing for a while. Later on the defense team brought him to the court as their witness. According to them Bali was abducted by the police when he was about to enter. David Bergman, a British journalist based in Bangladesh, has been devotedly reporting the detailed proceedings…
Read moreThis article is jointly written by Omar Shehab and Farhan Nasim. Photo courtesy: Arif Hafiz On 23rd March The Economistpublished an article titled ‘Justice in Bangladesh: Another kind of crime’ [1] criticizing the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT),Bangladesh. The article starts by dignifying the infamous Eichmann trial, a Second World War Holocaust case, which took place in Jerusalem…
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Without completely overhauling the justice system first, it is not prudent to use the war crime trials as a testing ground for abolition of DP.…
Read moreThis note is in response to a particular status of Toby Cadman which has been brought to my attention today. [here]. Through this status, Mr Cadman responded to an article I wrote on his role in defending Jamaat-E-Islami stalwarts currently being prosecuted at the International Crimes Tribunal (Toby Cadman: a Crusader for Rights or Devil’s…
Read morePro-defence commentators often criticise ICT’s acceptance of “hearsay evidence”. How valid is that criticism? It is true that “hearsay” evidence (eg: newspaper reports, or testimony of people who were not present at the scene of crime) is not an ideal kind of evidence in terms of their quality. However, this principle applies to ordinary criminal…
Read moreOn 15 May 2011, ICSF released its position paper on the suggestions of US War Crimes Ambassador Stephen Rapp delivered to the Government of Bangladesh regarding the ICT and its governing statute the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973. It has been prepared by the Legal Research Team of ICSF, one of the 21 such teams…
Read moreOver many years, public discourse on war crimes and its trial since 1971 seems to have generated many errors, and facts are often ignored or forgotten. This piece attempts to provide a set of facts. From the onset, two independent trial processes were established for the Pakistani and local war criminals under separate laws.…
Read moreAs soon as the trial of war criminals began, questions were raised from different quarters as to how and why the 195 Pakistani soldiers were released in 1974 without any trial. It has also been argued that those 195 Pakistanis were the main war criminals and their release questions the merit of the current trial process. This article investigates the news reports that were published in international media from December 16, 1971 to April 15, 1974 to understand how and why those 195 Pakistanis were accused and released [..]…
Read moreOne of the widely used propaganda items by the alleged war criminal lobby is the claim that ‘it was Bangabandu who resolved the issue of war crime trials by declaring General Amnesty in favour of the perpetrators’. In light of existing existing documents including media reports, this post examines the claim and exposes the falsehood that such claims represent.…
Read moreA response to Lord Eric Avebury’s press statement issued in relation to Justice Concern (a Jamat front) backed House of Lords Seminar [..] …
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