After cocktails hurled at witness, tribunal orders police to ensure his safety
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 has directed the police station concerned to ensure the safety of witness S M Sayem in the crimes against humanity case arising from the July mass uprising. Sayem testified as the 13th witness in the case against former law minister Anisul Huq and Salman F Rahman, adviser to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The tribunal issued the order on Sunday (8 November) after an application from the prosecution. Earlier the same day, defence lawyers cross-examined Sayem. After the cross-examination ended, Sayem sought protection from the tribunal.
Sayem is a student of the marketing department at Dhaka University. During the July movement he was a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement in the Mirpur area. He gave his deposition against Salman Rahman and Anisul Huq on 3 November.
Sayem told the tribunal that he lives in Mirpur-2. A man abused him in foul language in front of his house, he said, and unknown people stand in front of the house on motorcycles. Later, two cocktails were hurled at him in front of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
One cocktail landed right in front of him and the other fell about 10 feet away, Sayem said. After setting off the cocktails, the attackers fled on a motorcycle. He added that people have been coming to his house asking about him, and that he has also received abusive phone calls from abroad.
At one point during the proceedings, defence lawyer Mansurul Haque Chowdhury said his clients are in jail anyway. The witness testified for so many days without any complaint, he said, and is raising the allegation of insecurity only now that his testimony has ended.
The prosecution then filed a written application seeking security for Sayem. On that application, the court ordered that the witness's safety be ensured.
Charges were framed against Salman Rahman and Anisul Huq on 12 January this year. The prosecution has brought five charges against them in total.
The charges include incitement, instigation and conspiracy to use lethal weapons through the imposition of curfew. According to the prosecution, their sustained directives and actions led to armed attacks by law enforcement agencies and Awami League men in Mirpur-1, 2, 10 and 13, in which many students and members of the public were killed.
The charges further state that they took no effective steps to stop the repression. Salman and Anisul were also directly involved in taking policy decisions to suppress the July 2024 movement, the prosecution alleges, and a phone conversation took place between them on 19 July as part of that chain of events.
