DHAKA: Bangladesh prosecutors yesterday charged Human Right Watch with contempt of court after the New York-based rights group criticised the conviction of a top Islamist politician on war crimes charges.
But it was not immediately clear what the move will mean, as Human Rights Watch does not have a resident representative in Bangladesh to stand accused.
Ghulam Azam, 91, the former head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was jailed for 90 years last month for masterminding crimes against humanity, genocide and other offences during the country’s 1971 war of independence.
The rights group condemned the conviction as “deeply flawed” and said it failed to meet international standards of a fair trial.
“A petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against the Human Rights Watch has been filed in the war crimes tribunal,” prosecutor Tureen Afroz told reporters.
Human Rights Watch had said judges improperly conducted an investigation on behalf of the prosecution, there was collusion among prosecutors, failure to protect defence witnesses and a lack of evidence to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“The problems with the Azam trial are manifold, and lead to the inescapable conclusion that there has been strong judicial bias towards the prosecution and grave violations of due process rights,” Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said.
Early this month, a court declared Jamaat-e-Islami illegal, effectively banning it from the election.
REUTERS
