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Thursday, November 22, 2012

22 Oct 2012: Defence lawyer 'showcause'

The defense counsel Abdur Razzaque, first mentioned that they had 6 applications relating to the trial of Delwar Hossain Sayedee.

These were: 
1. Application to allow Mr. Md. Habibur Rahman Khan to give evidence as defence witness (DW).
2. Application to issue summon on Gonesh Chondro Shaha so that he can testify as defence witness.
3. An application to allow privileged communication between Defence counsels and Accused-Petitioner before commencement of argument.
4. An application to recall DW 13, Masood Sayedee under Rule 46A of the International Crimes Tribunal Rules of Procedure, 2010 to submit signed copy of Exhibit – AM.
5. Two applications to record the Reply given by DW-13 willingly in an answer to the Prosecution question.
The chairman said that they should raise them when the case is called later that day.

The court then called the witness relating to the trial of Nizami.

Munshi Ahsan Kabir, the Defence Counsel then stated: My Lord, I would like to draw your kind attention to yesterday’s unwanted incident which occurred in this court room during the second session. There was an unwanted event between the witness and the defence counsel Tajul Islam, where the witness has mentioned that the counsel was a political cadre. It is unexpected. We want to see him apologize before the Tribunal for yesterday’s incident.

Chairman: Sorry is a word which we have almost forgotten these days. Defence is instructed to start their cross examination and to complete it within half an hour. And it is our clear direction that- no one is allowed to talk during the cross examination except the conducting counsel and the witness.

Mizanul Islam: My Lord, I wish the Court will pass an order for yesterday’s unwanted incident. What is the remedy for the misbehavior by the witness against the learned counsel? This is the second incident where the counsel Tajul Islam has been addressed as the political cadre. I think it was intentional.

Chairman: You are losing your time. You have got only half an hour in your hand.

Mizanul Islam: I expect your Lordship will give a proper decision in this regard. There is no authority in the hands of any witness to insult a counsel, in the same way that a counsel has not got any scope to humiliate any witness.

Chairman: You have already said the witness has no authority, so when there is no authority we’d not have any intention to pass any comment in this regard. And you are losing your time. We will stop exactly at 11:10 A.M.

Mizanul Islam: Your Lordship may stop taking the record at any time you wish. But I’d like to mention there was a similiar sort of unwanted incident in the other tribunal where action has been taken. I can’t agree that you have no authority to make comment or taking actions.

Justice Jahangir Hossain: The Chairman has made his comments, but you’re still debating. Please proceed on because you do not have enough times in your hands. After that you may talk about it.

Mizanul Islam: If the Tribunal remains silent about the matter then in coming days another witness will be interested to do similiar activities.

Chairman: Do you think so?

Tajul Islam: I’m the officer of this Court and as well the conducting lawyer. I have applied for my protection, but the Tribunal has not agreed to secure any proper remedy. As my protection has not been secured so I’m leaving the room.

Chairman: Mr. Tajul; stop. And don’t leave the room.

Tajul Islam: No I will not stay here during the cross examination of this particular witness who has misbehaved with me yesterday.

Chairman: As you are the conducting lawyer you are not allowed to leave the room during the proceeding. Let me read Rule 45(B).

Tajul Islam: I know the contents of Rule- 45(B).

Tajul Islam: You are not giving me any protection, so I will not stay here whatever is said in the aforesaid rule.

Tajul leaves the room

The Tribunal became very silent at this point and the Chairman has passed the following order.
It appears that Mr. Tajul Islam when appears before this Tribunal seems always angry. Yesterday we have seen that Tajul Islam has stood up every 3 or 4 minutes. The witness at certain point of time could not control himself and made some comments. Then there arose a chaos in the Court room. We found Tajul Islam liable for everything that happened. And today when Mizanul Islam started speaking we have directed everyone to keep silent except the conducting counsel to talk; then Tajul Islam stood up and prayed for action against the witness. He told that- if the action is not taken he will leave the room. We have warned him that- if he is supposed to leave the room it will fall under misconduct under Rule- 45(B) of the ICT Rules of Procedures. Afterwards he has left the room in a very rough way.

Now at this circumstance he is directed to show cause why it is not to be counted as misconduct. And he is asked to give a reply within 15 days. Then we will decide what to do.

Once after a similar sort of misconduct, a show cause notice had been issued but this was not proceeded on after the request of Mizanul Islam.

We will add some other points in this order afterwards.
Mizanul Islam: It is very unfortunate.

Chairman: It is really unfortunate for everyone except the person who is responsible for this.

Okay start the cross examination.

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