Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury jailed, fined

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Wednesday sentenced Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, one of the 23 noted citizens who published a statement over the conviction of Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman, one hour jail for contempt of court acquitting the 22 others. The court also fined him Tk 5,000. A three-member bench of the ICT-2, headed by Justice Obaidul Hasan, passed the order. On December 2 last year, the tribunal after a lengthy hearing convicted David Bergman, also son in-law of noted jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, president of Gono Forum and a former minister, and sentenced him to a symbolic jail term with a fine and accordingly the convict-contemnor served the sentence and paid the fine. On December 20 that year, the Prothom Alo, a vernacular daily, published the statement titled, ‘50 citizens express concern over punishing Bergman’. On January 14, the tribunal asked the 49 personalities to explain by January 27 regarding their statement.
In compliance with the court order, 25 dignitaries apologised in three phases while one of the signatories in the statement, Khushi Kabir, retracted her name from the impugned statement. Later, on April 1, the tribunal issued a rule asking the citizens to explain why punitive actions would not be taken against them on contempt charge, according to a news agency.