The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Thursday sent two journalists, Mozammel Haq Babu and Farzana Rupa, and former foreign minister Dipu Moni to jail after showing them arrested in a crimes against humanity case linked to the killings during the Hefazat-e-Islam rally at Shapla Chattar in the capital’s Matijheel area on May 5–6, 2013.
The prosecution alleged that the two journalists had instigated and provoked violence during the crackdown on Hefazat activists. Mozammel Babu is the former managing director of Ekattor Television, while Farzana Rupa is a former chief reporter of the private television channel.
A three-member tribunal led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumdar passed the order after the accused were produced before the court in the morning.
The tribunal fixed June 7 for the submission of the investigation report in the case.
Earlier, on May 7, the tribunal, responding to a prosecution plea, ordered the jail authorities to produce the three before it.
Chief prosecutor Md Aminul Islam, responding to a journalist’ query at his office later, said that Rupa was allegedly involved in the ‘planning’ and ‘total mechanism’ behind the killings at Shapla Chattar.
He also said that if any other journalists were found involved in the incident, they would also face legal action.
The journalists’ lawyer, ABM Hamidul Mishbah, in a separate briefing, said that there was no reason to link journalists to the incident, as they only reported the news. ‘So, does this mean that those who are reporting news now could also later become accused in similar cases?’
Aminul told reporters that the prosecution only considered whether a person committed any offence, regardless of profession.
He alleged that Rupa stayed at the scene throughout the night and broadcast ‘distorted information’ through her programme ‘Samikoron’.
According to him, Rupa claimed in the broadcast that nobody had been killed or injured during the operation at Shapla Chattar.
Aminul said that Rupa was not accused merely for publishing a ‘wrong report’.
‘She has been accused because allegations suggest that she was involved in the planning and total mechanism behind the incident,’ he said.
On May 5, the chief prosecutor said that investigators had confirmed the identities of 58 people killed during the May 2013 crackdown on Hefazat-e-Islam activists.
Of them, 32 were killed in Dhaka, mostly at Shapla Chattar, he said, adding that 20 more were killed in Narayanganj on May 6, while five were killed in Chattogram and one in Cumilla on the same day.
The six other people arrested in the case are former state minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku, retired major general Ziaul Ahsan, former inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque, former deputy inspector general Molla Nazrul Islam, Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee advisory council president Shahriar Kabir, and former deputy inspector general of police Abdul Jalil Mondal. They are now in jail.
