DHAKA: International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 on Sunday acquitted London based tabloid newspaper ‘The Economist’ from a contempt of court case.

A three-member tribunal bench led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir passed the verdict as the allegation against ‘The Economist’ was not proved.

On July 18, the hearing the case ended in presence of the defense and prosecution lawyers.

In the hearing, lawyer for the journalists Mustafizur Rahman said his clients did not do anything contemptuous by making contact over phone with the tribunal’s former chairman.

The lawyer, however, admitted that the journalists should have make contact with the judge through registrar of the tribunal which is the proper way.

On December 6 in 2012, ICT-1 issued the show cause notice to two journalists of the British weekly.

The then ICT-1 Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq said he had regular conversations with international war crimes specialist Ahmed Ziauddin, who lives in Brussels, on the war crimes trial over e-mail and Skype.

ICT-1 passed the order saying no one can ask a presiding judge about an ongoing trial in his court and it is a serious offence.

The tribunal also directed the Economist not to publish the record in any circumstances.

In its order, the tribunal said a copy of this order should be served to inspector general of police for probe into the matter.

On December 11 of last year, Justice Nizamul Haque resigned as the chairman of the ICT-1 soon after published a news item over his Skype conversation.

BDST: 1530 HRS, DEC 29, 2013
Edited by: Golam Rosul, Newsroom Editor/M. Mahbub Alam, Asst Output Editor