Today, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) directed the relevant authorities to take down all of the “hate speeches” of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from social media and take the required actions to prevent their future spread in all forms of mass media.
The two-member tribunal, presided over by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mozumder, issued the ruling, permitting the prosecution to enter a plea. “The tribunal asked secretaries of the ICT Division and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to execute the order,” Prosecutor Advocate Abdullah Al Noman told BSS. The prosecution had already filed the petition, requesting that the deposed prime minister remove and prohibit all hate speech and incitement that could frighten witnesses or victims or impede a proper and efficient inquiry. “It is to be noted that we are not talking about restricting her political statements here. We are talking about hate speeches as per the criteria set in Rabat Principles,” Advocate Noman said.
“As per the Rabat Principles, to assess whether any expression or statement can be regarded as a criminal offence, the following elements must be considered – context, speaker, intent, content and form, extent of the speech act and likelihood,” he added. Earlier, Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim briefed the reporters on this topic, stating that hate speech is illegal in Bangladesh as well as every other country in the world. “Sheikh Hasina has made speeches, where she was heard saying she got the license to kill 227 people as the same number of cases were filed against her. She was even heard giving threats to the victims and witnesses of the cases against her, through these speeches,” Advocate Tamim said.
