SHOAIB’S COURT APPEARANCES ON AUG.31st AND Sept. 1st
The following is an excerpt from the article “Here is the Latest Information About Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury” written by Dr. Richard Benkin (for the full article please go to: www.InterfaithStrength.com ):
“Shoaib returned to court on August 31 for the trial’s third day. The government witness was to give his response to questions posed on cross examination. He did not show, and the prosecution filed a “time petition”: more time for the witness to respond. We should hope after five years of supposedly having the answers, three weeks plus was enough time. I urged that defense to oppose the move, but I am not sure what happens. Also, it is possible that the government wants to bend over backwards to show that it is not pushing the acquittal but if it comes, acquittal will be the result of the Bangladeshi law. Still, more time seems highly improper given all the time that has passed already.
The witness did show the next day, and the cross examination proceeded. The defense asked a number of questions that were designed to impeach the witnesses credibility. The questions focused on matters of fact that have been alleged, and the witness was unable to respond knowledgeably to any of them. On a matter critical to the prosecution’s case, the defense asked the witness for examples of words by Shoaib that “hurt the image of Bangladesh,” as he alleged in his previous testimony. He was unable to do so–which makes sense given the fact that Shoaib has not hurt the image of Bangladesh, that the nation’s Army Chief and others have stated publicly that there is a problem in the country of radical Islamist terrorists, and that the witness has been sent to parrot a series of false and unsupportable charges against Shoaib.
The trial has been going so well, and the judge has been quite professional throughout that Shoaib contacted me and expressed his happiness at the trial’s impartiality thus far. His attorneys also feel confident that the case is going very well according to Bangladeshi law. In fact, as I told several key individuals in the US and Bangladesh; an acquittal a this point only vindicates the Bangladeshi judiciary and indicates that it will continue to handle these cases with impartiality and professionalism. It is also becoming clear that this government offers far more in the way of justice than either of its political predecessors, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party or the Awami League. The next court date is October 5.”