Bangladesh tribunal convicts UK journalist of contempt News
Bangladesh tribunal convicts UK journalist of contempt

[JURIST] A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Tuesday found British journalist David Bergman guilty of contempt for challenging the official death toll of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war [Bangladesh News backgrounder] with Pakistan. Bergman wrote [AP report] in a 2011 blog post and two other articles that the number of those killed or raped during the war recorded by Bangladeshi officials lacked evidentiary support. According to officials, three million people were killed [BBC report] during the conflict. As a result of the judgment, in which the court stated that the journalist offended the nation, Bergman will have to pay a fine equal to USD $65. If he fails to do so, he will face a week in jail.

Two special tribunals were set up in 2010 for war crime convictions. Since then, they have convicted 13 people, most of whom were senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). In November a special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced [JURIST report] a man to death for his role in killings during the independence war. Earlier that month the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official website] upheld the death sentence [JURIST report] of Islamist politician Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, who was assistant secretary general of the JI party. In October another JI party leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, was sentenced to death [JURIST report] for war crimes. Activists have long called for the banning of the country’s largest Islamist party. In March Bangladeshi investigators moved the government [JURIST report] to ban the Islamist party after evidence emerged indicating that JI formed armed groups to assist Pakistani forces in the commission of atrocities.

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