WHY THE BANGLADESHI WAR CRIMES TRIAL IS A FARCE

The 2012 ICT Skype controversy was the leaking of Skype conversations and emails between Mohammed Nizamul Huq, head judge and chairman of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), and Ahmed Ziauddin, a Bangladeshi lawyer based in Brussels. These conversations took place during the prosecution of the accused for alleged war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.

According to The Economist, the recordings and emails suggested that the Bangladesh Government pressured and intervened in the International Crimes Tribunal to speed up proceedings. The neutrality and independence of Huq was called into question, as Ziauddin  helped  him to prepare documents for the tribunal and made detailed recommendations for Huq. Ziauddin also advised prosecutors, including the chief prosecutor Zaed-al-Malum, and informed Huq about how the prosecutors may develop their cases. This resulted in a connection between the judge, adviser and the prosecution.

The 17 hours of conversations between 28 August and 20 October 2012 and more than 230 e-mails between September 2011 and September 2012 were disclosed to The Economist. The Bangladeshi newspaper Amar Desh also received the conversations, and published a report on 9 December, followed by the transcripts in full.

On 11 December 2012, Huq resigned from his position as chairman of ICT-1. Despite demands from Jamaat-e-Islami for the Tribunal to be scrapped, Bangladesh Law Minister Shafique Ahmed said that Huq's resignation would not hamper trial proceedings. The defendants' applications for retrials were rejected.

The International Crimes Tribunal was set up in Bangladesh in 2009 to prosecute suspects accused of war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Between 2010 and 2012, the tribunal indicted nine from Jamaat-e-Islami and two from the BNP who were politicians opposing the present Bangladeshi regime.

During a conversation between Huq and Ziauddin on 14 October, Huq referred to the government as

“absolutely crazy for a judgment. The government has gone totally mad. They have gone completely mad, I am telling you. They want a judgment by 16th December (Victory Day)...it's as simple as that.”

 

On October 15, Huq described how a member of the government “came to visit me this evening. He asked me to pass this verdict fast. I told him ‘how can I do that?’... He said, ‘Try as quick as you can.’”

The Economist also says the communications revealed Brussels-based lawyer Ziauddin's influence in the trial.  Between 28 August and 20 October, the two men spoke for the equivalent of almost 20 minutes every day. Ziauddin appeared to help Huq prepare documents. On 12 May, Ziauddin sent Huq a document called "GhulamAzamChargesFinalDraft", and the next day the tribunal issued an identical document as its indictment against Ghulam Azam. Ziauddin also advised Huq on the future of Huq's fellow judge Shahinur Islam, saying, "If he does not stop he has to go as well, because it is so harmful to us."

The Economist also says the conversations reveal that Ziauddin discussed the same issues with the judge and the prosecutors, including the chief prosecutor Zaed-al-Malum. On 11 December 2011 he sent Malum and another prosecutor help on the case against Azam and forwarded this advice to Huq. After the prosecutors laid their charges, Ziauddin continued to advise Huq on the accusations.

During the conversations, one or both of the men referred to Justice Jahangir Hossain as "corrupt." Before Justice Huq resigned, Hossain gave an emotional speech in court in his own defence (Huq was absent). Hossain objected to Huq and Ziauddin's characterisation of him.

Toby Cadman, the defense attorney for the accused in Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal and the most high-profile critic of the process says the problems of the ICT: "lack of transparency; discriminatory intent of the legislation and tribunal; lack of clear definitions of crimes; absence of rules of disclosure; and investigations being conducted under a cloak of secrecy."

The editor of Amar Desh newspaper, Mahmudur Rahman, was arrested. The Asian Human Rights Commission reports that Rahman has been tortured in police custody.