A prominent Bangladeshi rural health activist was today given a token punishment after a warcrimes tribunal found him in contempt for criticising its previous ruling in the case of a British journalist who questioned the official death toll in the country’s 1971 independence war.
Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder of Ganoshasthaya Kendra, a rural healthcare organisation, was ordered by the three-member International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 to stand on dock inside the courtroom for an hour.
The panel punished him with a simple imprisonment for an hour inside the courtroom along with a fine, an official said. The independence war veteran has been fined Tk5,000 ($65). If he fails to pay the fine, he will have to serve a sentence of one month. Chowdhury is one of the 50 people who in December had expressed “concern” over the conviction of Dhaka-based British journalist David Bergman.