A war crimes tribunal withdrew on Sunday the warrant it issued earlier for the arrest of Gonoshasthya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury on contempt of court charges, reports UNB.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 recalled the arrest warrant after Zafrullah Chowdhury submitted the copy of the Supreme Court (SC) order that stayed the tribunal's verdict against him around 11:00 am.
Earlier on June 18, the ICT-2 issued a warrant for the arrest of Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury as he failed to pay a fine of Tk 5,000 by June 17 as per the tribunal's pervious order.
On June 10, the ICT-2 found Dr Zafruallah Chowdhury guilty of contempt of court for criticising the punishment of British journalist David Bergman and punished him keeping him standing in the court for an hour and fined him Tk 5,000.
The court asked him to pay the fine in seven days and in default he will have to suffer one month's jail.
On June 16, the Appellate Division (AD)'s Chamber Judge withheld the judgment of the ICT-2 for fining Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury for contempt of court after hearing a petition by him against the tribunal's judgment.
But the tribunal did not get the copy of the order on the deadline (June 17).
On January 14, the ICT-2 issued a contempt notice against 49 people who had expressed concern through a statement published in the daily Prothom Alo over the tribunal's judgment to punish British citizen and journalist David Bergman of contempt of court.
Based on their explanations, the tribunal exonerated 25 from the allegation of contempt of court.
The ICT-2 on April 1 drew contempt proceedings against the 23 noted citizens.
Bergman, special reports editor of the daily New Age, got the punishment for committing contempt of court on December 2, 2014, for his criticism of the trial process on his personal blog and thus demeaning the court.
