Ziauddin Ahmed: 'No Comment'

Ziauddin Ahmed, the Brussel's based international lawyer with whom the Tribunal Chairman has acknowledged in a recent court order that he has been in contact with over Skype concerning matters relating to the International Crimes Tribunal has said that he will not make any comment about the matter until it is dealt with by the Tribunal.

In a e-mail statement, he said:

'I cannot discuss anything at this stage since the matter is under consideration of the ICT and as such, sub-judice. Thank you for your understanding.'

When asked whether he was 'able to comment [on] whether or not the transcripts published this morning in Amar Desh are correct?' he said:

'I think until its resolved by the ICT I cannot make any comment. Hope you will understand.' 

His statement comes as yet another day passes without any substantive article from The Economist about the material that it has said that it is currently investigating.

In the meantime, Amar Desh has published a long transcript of a number of conversations (amounting to over 22,000 words) between the ICT chairman and Ziauddin. In addition a number of the audio tapes of these conversation are available on u-tube, and links are circulating to these.

Many are expecting that this material would be published on this blog, but it will not be at the moment for the following reasons.
- these are illegally obtained confidential material and journalistic ethics requires considerable thought before simply publishing them;
- the Economist - as far as one can guess from its recent article - is currently going through a rigorous analysis of whether the information disclosed by them is sufficiently in the public interest to merit  publication in their magazine. It seems appropriate, therefore first to wait and see what The Economist publishes;
- and, finally their publication may make me vulnerable to legal action in Bangladesh.

Once the Economist has published an article, assuming it does so - and it has given its consideration to public interest issues - this blog will consider undertaking its own analysis of what the impact of the revelations might mean for the tribunal.