[Bangla Daily Star] International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday sentenced "absconding" Jamaat-e-Islami...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
politician Hamidur Rahman Azad and Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan to three months' imprisonment and fined each of them Tk 3,000 for contempt of court.
Hours after the judgement was delivered, the Jamaat called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
for today.
The court also sentenced Selim Uddin, placed in durance vile
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
assistant secretary general of Jamaat Dhaka city unit, to simple imprisonment until the court ended its session for the day, which was 12:35pm yesterday.
It also fined him Tk 1,000.
He had apologised to the court for the provocative and derogatory comments he had made about the court.
The Jamaat leaders have to pay the fine within seven days from yesterday or else serve two more weeks in jail. The sentence of Rafiqul and Azad will begin from the date of their arrest or from the date of their surrender before the tribunal.
It all began on February 4, a day before the tribunal delivered the verdict against Jamaat leader Quader Mollah. Jamaat leaders Selim and Azad at a Jamaat rally in Motijheel made derogatory and provocative comments about the tribunals and ongoing trials there.
Later in the day, Rafiqul joined in and issued a blurb with similar comments about the tribunal and its cases.
On February 7, the tribunal asked the trio to explain as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for their comments.
The court had issued the notice on its own following reports published in The Daily Star and Bangla daily Prothom Alo on February 5.
On February 5, the Prothom Alo quoted Selim as saying, "There is no scope for the controversial tribunal to deliver any verdict if the country is to be saved from a civil war."
The daily quoted Azad as saying at the same programme, "This tribunal cannot exist any more."
The Daily Star, in a report headlined, "Jamaat warns of civil war", quoted Rafiqul as saying, "Don't push the country into a civil war by delivering one-sided verdicts against our leaders. If anything happens to Quader Mollah, every house will be on fire."
On March 6, the court ordered the police to arrest the Jamaat leaders and produce them before the court for "deliberately avoiding" appearance before the tribunal in connection with the contempt of court ruling.
Selim was arrested but the police claimed that Rafiqul and Azad were on the run.
On June 2, Selim apologised unconditionally before the tribunal.
About Selim, the tribunal in its order yesterday said, "In the name of freedom of speech, [he] threatened the rule of law and lawful authority of the tribunal ... By such utterances, he clearly intended to attack and disparage the lawful authority of the tribunal. This is seriously contemptuous indeed."