Prosecutor faces ICT investigation over Tk1 crore bribe claim

Bangla Press Desk: The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) will launch an internal corruption probe after an audio clip emerged suggesting that an outgoing prosecutor demanded Tk1 crore bribe from a defendant.

Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam confirmed the development at a press briefing held on the Tribunal’s premises on Tuesday noon.Saimum Reza, who quit on Monday as an ICT prosecutor, allegedly demanded the bribe from the wife of ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, former Awami League lawmaker Chattogram-6 constituency, for securing his bail in a July Uprising killing case.

Two media outlets reviewed multiple records of the Whatsapp phone conversation over the bribe demand and published a joint investigative report on Tuesday.

The ICT chief prosecutor’s office will conduct an investigation into the allegation even if nobody files a formal complaint in this regard, said Md Aminul Islam while speaking at Tuesday’s press briefing.

Before the briefing, the chief prosecutor convened a closed-door meeting to discuss the allegation, where he warned all the present prosecutors that corruption will not be tolerated at ICT, Md Aminul told journalists at the presser.

The chief prosecutor said that he will also form a committee to probe all the happenings inside ICT from the day it was reconstituted following the July Uprising.Source: daily Sun

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