Law will take its own course if anyone fails to attend the hearing in the Bangladesh Cricket Board match-fixing tribunal, Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury, convener of the tribunal, said at a press conference on Saturday. The tribunal chief was responding to a question on whether it has any power to compel any accused person to attend the hearing, the preliminary phase of which begins today at its Navana Tower office at Gulshan.
The owners of Dhaka Gladiators, who are among the nine individuals charged by the International Cricket Council, said they will not attend any hearing as their case filed with the Dhaka Judge’s Court regarding the issue is still pending.
‘You see we were here for a domestic inquiry under a law and this is a self-contained law and they have submitted to the jurisdiction of this tribunal,’ said Justice Khademul. ‘They have to [come]. We don’t know how it becomes a case or can be a case.
‘We served them with notice and they received it. They are bound to appear before the tribunal. We don’t want to tell anything more. If they don’t come, law will take its own course.
‘This is an internal matter of a game and every game has certain rules. Cricket does have its own rules. Domestic inquiry is governed by internal rules. It doesn’t go to the court.
‘There is no case in the world on domestic tribunal. We are not bound by the existing law. If someone defies we will proceed according to our rules,’ he said.
Justice Khademul leads a three-member tribunal which also includes senior lawyer Ajmalul Hossain and former cricketer Shakil Kashem.
Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid, who was appointed by the BCB as the chairman of the disciplinary panel, formed the tribunal under article 5.1.1.B of the BCB’s anti-corruption code.
The Gladiators’ owners claimed that they went to the court as the tribunal was not formed within stipulated 40 days from the day of framing the charge.
Justice Khademul said they will explain it to them from when the deadline will be counted if they attend the hearing.
The tribunal chief added that they did not specify any timeframe for concluding the trial.
‘There is no hard and fast limitation but we will dispose the cases very quickly,’ he said at the press conference held at the tribunal office in the Navana Tower.
‘Tomorrow [Sunday] will be the preliminary hearing and then we will set a date for final hearing,’ he said, adding that anyone found guilty will have the chance to appeal.
‘There is a scope for appeal that has to be made before our chairman [Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid] and then there is another scope of appeal before the international court of sports arbitration,’ he said.
The hearing, which the tribunal chief said is ‘in the nature of domestic disciplinary inquiry’, would not be open to the public and the media.
‘The proceeding, which is in the nature of domestic disciplinary inquiry, would not be open to the public/media as the confidentiality of the proceedings would have to be maintained and the identity of the alleged offenders cannot be disclosed,’ he said in a statement, read out at the press conference.
-With New Age input
