TDS Desk

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has banned broadcasting, publishing, and spreading any hate speech by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in India, in all types of mass and social media.

The tribunal has also ordered the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to remove all posts regarding her inflammatory remarks from all social media platforms and mass media.

Talking to this correspondent, ICT Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim confirmed the tribunal’s order at around noon today (5 December).

The three-member tribunal led by its Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mazumdar issued the order after the prosecution team earlier in the morning submitted an application seeking the ban in light of recent circumstances.

The order came at a time when some remarks recently made by Hasina, who resigned and fled to India on 5 August in the face of a mass uprising led by students, started spreading on social media and stirred up controversies in the past few days.

In the comments, Hasina – who is currently accused in at least 60 cases filed over the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the protests and subsequent uprising in July and August this year – made several inflammatory accusations against the interim government and its Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.

After she fled to India on 5 August, the Awami League president made various statements from there regarding the interim government, which took charge of the country on 8 August. Many of them had gone viral on social media and were covered by the mass media, creating much controversy.

Meanwhile, on 18 November, the ICT gave the tribunal’s investigation team a month to finish probing the genocide charges against her and others over the crimes committed in July-August and submit the findings by 17 December.

Previously, a High Court bench on 7 January, 2015, had banned publishing, broadcasting or reproducing speeches and statements of Tarique Rahman, the acting chairperson of BNP, in all print, electronic and social media.

Implicated in several corruption cases, Tarique, the eldest son of former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, has been living in London since 2008 after being released on parole. He was later declared absconding by a Dhaka court in a money laundering case.

In a statement on 5 January, 2015, Tarique declared that the BNP’s movement would continue until then prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned. On the following day, Advocate Nasreen Siddiki Lina filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking a ban on publishing his speech.

After the Awami League government fell on 5 August this year, the High Court on 22 August lifted the ban removing all obstacles to media coverage of Tarique’s speech and statements.