'Oldest war crimes suspect in the world'gets bail
International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday granted conditional bail to a 103-year-old man from Satkhira sadar upazila whom the prosecution says is the world's oldest war crimes accused.
Before Abdullah Al Baki alias Abdullah Hel Baki, it was an alleged former guard at a Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, Hans Lipschis, who was arrested in 2013 at the age of 93, prosecutor Tureen Afroz told The Daily Star.
Lipschis was found to be unfit to stand trial for suffering from dementia, a condition leaving him unable to follow proceedings, she added.
Baki was held in his residence on Saturday following warrants issued by the tribunal on March 8 for the arrest of him and two others of Satkhira.
The three, along with Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer in Satkhira Abdul Khaleq Mandol, 72, who is already in jail, are accused in a case filed for allegedly committing crimes during the Liberation War in 1971.
Police are yet to arrest the remaining two -- Khan Rokonujjaman and Jahirul Islam alias Jahirul Haque. The tribunal's investigation agency on February 8 said to have found evidence against the four.
Yesterday, Baki was brought before the three-member tribunal led by Justice Anwarul Haque at 1:20pm on a stretcher with defence counsels reasoning that he can not move on his own.
Prosecutor Rezia Sultana Chaman prayed to send him to jail.
The tribunal questioned the prosecution's petition, which sought Baki's arrest stating that he was trying to influence the prosecution's witnesses and may go into hiding.
“How can such a man influence investigations? How can he obstruct the trial?” the tribunal said.
Defence counsel Abdus Sattar Palwan said Baki has been suffering from old age complications and he was ready to follow any condition set by the tribunal if granted bail.
The tribunal allowed his prayer. The Daily Star is yet to know what the conditions are.
INVESTIGATION AGAINST OSMAN FARRUK
War crimes investigators yesterday visited Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) in Mymensingh as part of a probe in a case filed against top BNP leader and former education minister Muhammad Osman Farruk over his alleged involvement in crimes during the Liberation War.
A team of investigators led by the agency's coordinator, Sanaul Huq, met Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Ali Akbar, some freedom fighters and several teachers, employees and officials who served at the university in 1971, reports our Mymensingh correspondent.
Farruk was an assistant professor of the then East Pakistan Agricultural University (now BAU) in 1971.
On May 4 last year, the agency said to have started a preliminary probe into the alleged crimes committed by Farruk and 10 other teachers.
Investigations formally began against Farruk on January 4. He was elected lawmaker from Kishoreganj-4 in 2001 and later became the education minister of the BNP-led four-party government.
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