Mohammed Nizamul Huq

Nizamul Huq is the son of Nurul Huq, his father, and Asia Khatun, his mother. He attended the Patuakhali Government Jubilee High School in the Patuakhali District.{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=264703 |title=125th founding day of a Patuakhali school |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=13 January 2013 |accessdate=25 February 2013}}

Nizamul Huq was a treasurer and lawyer for the Bangladesh human rights organisation Odhikar (Anglicized also as Adhikar) before joining the High Court.{{cite news|title=Sri Lankans in country to visit CHT |newspaper=The Independent |date=25 December 1998}}{{cite news|title=Kidney removal at DMCH: Health Secy, five others asked to show cause |newspaper=The Independent |date=3 September 1998}}

Nizamul Huq was first appointed judge of the High Court by President Shahabuddin Ahmed, a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.{{cite news|title=President likely to appoint 12 HC judges by January 7 |newspaper=The Independent |date=2 January 2001}}{{cite news|title=Five out of nine HC judges confirmed |newspaper=The Independent |date=3 July 2003}} Nizamul Huq was reappointed to the High Court by President Zillur Rahman, on 24 March 2009.{{cite news|title=10 HC judges sworn in |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=26 March 2009 |accessdate=24 February 2013 |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=81395}}{{cite news|title=Bangladesh elects new president |work=BBC News |date=11 February 2009 |accessdate=24 February 2013 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7883872.stm}}

Nizamul Huq was a member of the Secretariat of the People's Commission, which prepared evidence in 1994 before the tribunal about the defendants, over whom Huq would later preside, and he later deliberated on the report as evidence during the war crimes trials.{{cite news|first=Tamanna |last=Khan |title=Is the Wait Over? |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=14 October 2011 |accessdate=25 February 2013 |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2011/10/02/cover.htm}} Afterward, he was appointed as the head of the International Crimes Tribunal on 25 March 2010, and he resigned amid a controversy on 11 December 2012 after his Skype calls with Ahmed Ziauddin were revealed by Amar Desh and The Economist.{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |title=2 journalists have to reply to ICT notice by March 4 |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=267783 |date=4 February 2013 |accessdate=23 February 2013}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |title=Sedition case filed against Amar Desh editor, publisher |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=43158 |date=13 December 2013 |accessdate=23 February 2013}} He was replaced by Fazle Kabir.{{cite news|title=Justice Kabir new chief |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=13 December 2012 |accessdate=10 April 2013 |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=260968}} Afterward he rejoined the High Court and hears civil cases.{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=264727 |title=Justice Nizamul back to HC |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=11 January 2013 |accessdate=23 February 2013}}

{{See also|2012 ICT Skype controversy}}

Nizamul Huq resigned his position for "personal reasons" and shortly after the release of the full 17 hours of Skype conversations and 230 emails between himself and Ziauddin to news sources.{{cite news |title=International Crimes Tribunal chairman resigns over Skype |publisher=Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha |date=11 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://www1.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=0&id=299088&date=2012-12-11 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130615214010/http://www1.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=0&id=299088&date=2012-12-11 |archive-date=15 June 2013 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}{{cite news |title=Bangladesh war crimes chief judge resigns over hacked calls |newspaper=DAWN |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=11 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://dawn.com/2012/12/11/bangladesh-war-crimes-chief-judge-resigns-over-hacked-calls/}} From December 2012 until March 2013, it was unknown who had obtained access to the Skype conversations and emails or how those materials were obtained, although the publishers of the content were first suspected.{{cite news|title=Tribunal chief's net talks, mail hacked |newspaper=The Daily Star |location=Dhaka |date=7 December 2012 |accessdate=12 April 2013 |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=260294}} In 2013, journalist David Bergman reported that he had learned that Nizamul Huq had transferred his entire computer drive over multiple computers and a US-based security firm said people with legal access to those drives gave its agents the files. In the New Age article, Bergman quotes James Mulvaney, who is from Guardian Consulting LLC and the private security firm that was given the materials by an unnamed source, says:

{{quote|... those who provided the company's operatives with copies of the material did not break the law as it came 'from people with legal access to any number of hard drives on which the evidence was stored and was/is available. We did not hack his computer'}}

The company said it had been paid $100,000 by a client who questioned the neutrality of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal. The war crimes court accused The Economist and Amar Desh of "hacking" Nizamul Huq's computers.{{cite news |title=The Economist accused of hacking Bangladesh war crime tribunal judge |newspaper=The Australian |agency=Associated Press |date=10 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/the-economist-accused-of-hacking-bangladesh-war-crime-tribunal-judge/story-e6frg996-1226533435427}}

The Economist said in its article "The trial of the birth of a nation" (12 December 2012){{cite magazine |title=The trial of the birth of a nation |magazine=The Economist |date=12 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21568349-week-chairman-bangladeshs-international-crimes-tribunal-resigned-we-explain?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/the_trial_of_the_birth_of_a_nation}} that it would not normally publish private correspondence, denied that it had paid for the materials and acknowledged issues of press ethics, but it cited "public interest" behind its decision. The magazine wrote, "These emails, if genuine, would indeed raise questions about the working of the court and we are bound to investigate them as fully as we can."{{cite news|first=Farid |last=Hossain |title=Economist Magazine Faces Contempt in Bangladesh |publisher=Associated Press |date=9 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/economist-magazine-faces-contempt-bangladesh}} It further wrote about its coverage of the cache,"There is a risk not only of a miscarriage of justice affecting the individual defendants, but also that the wrongs which Bangladesh has already suffered will be aggravated by the flawed process of the tribunal. That would not heal the country's wounds, but deepen them."{{cite news|first=S.G. |last=Jilanee |title=Abusing the System |publisher=SouthAsia Magazine |volume=17 |issue=1 |date=31 January 2013 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://www.saglobalaffairs.com/back-issues/1359-abusing-the-system.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814233419/http://www.saglobalaffairs.com/back-issues/1359-abusing-the-system.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=14 August 2016}} The court called the UK magazine's article on the Skype conversation "interference" and a "violation" of privacy and ordered its representatives to appear before the court in Bangladesh to answer for contempt of court.

The further publication of verbatim quotes from the Skype conversations between Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin by the Bangladesh newspaper Amar Desh revealed government intervention into the judiciary and Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, which Nizamul Huq led. Nizamul Huq said in the widely available video (as quoted from Foreign Policy magazine, 21 December 2012) that the Awami League-led government is "absolutely crazy for a judgment. The government has gone mad. They have gone completely mad, I am telling you. They want a judgment by 16th December... It's as simple as that."{{cite news|title=The Midlife Crisis of Bangladesh |work=Foreign Policy|date=21 December 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/21/the_midlife_crisis_of_bangladesh?page=full}} Later in the video, he admits that he publicly met with an appointed minister from the government and was pressured by that minister for quick verdicts. Nizamul Huq said, the minister "came to visit me this evening. He asked me to pass this verdict fast. I told him 'how can I do that?'... He said, 'Try as quick as you can.'" The newspaper Amar Desh also published emails from Nizamul Huq to Ziauddin. A sedition charge was filed on 14 December 2012 against Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman. The government arrested Mahmudur Rahman, editor of the Amar Desh on 11 April 2013 for sedition and cyber crimes involving the Skype videos and their publication in his newspaper.{{cite news |title=Bangladesh newspaper editor arrested in raid |work=Al Jazeera |date=11 April 2013 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/04/2013411561842868.html}}

In December 2012, the court by order suppressed the media from publishing materials or accounts of those Skype conversations.{{cite news |first=David |last=Bergman |title=US pvt intelligence firm reveals ICT Skype role |newspaper=New Age |location=Dhaka |date=23 March 2013 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |url=http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-03-23&nid=43889 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117010258/http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-03-23&nid=43889 |archivedate=17 January 2014 |df=dmy-all }}{{cite news |title=HC questions legality of hacking e-mail, Skype |newspaper=New Age |location=Dhaka |date=14 December 2012 |accessdate=12 April 2013 |url=http://newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2012-12-14&nid=33362 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004142537/http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2012-12-14&nid=33362 |archivedate=4 October 2013 |df=dmy-all }} According to news sources, the videos of the conversations between Nizamul Huq and Ziauddin were posted to YouTube.

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Category:Living people

Category:1950 births

Category:21st-century Bangladeshi judges

Category:People from Patuakhali district