Hearing adjourned
Irked by poor preparations of the prosecution, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday adjourned hearing on charge-framing of the war crimes case against Syed Md Hassan Ali and fixed October 22 for next hearing.
It was not the first time the tribunal expressed dissatisfaction over poor preparations of the prosecution of the case.
The three-member tribunal led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim was exasperated when prosecutor Mohammad Ali prayed to the tribunal to frame charges against Hassan, saying the prosecution had not submitted adequate documentary evidence in the belief that oral testimony would suffice to prove the charges.
The tribunal asked Mohammad Ali why he had submitted 'unnecessary newspaper clippings'.
Criticising both the investigation agency and the prosecution, the tribunal said, "They do not investigate properly and keep blaming each other after pronouncement of verdicts. The media write about this every day."
Addressing the chief prosecutor, the chairman of the tribunal suggested collecting books and documents written by local witnesses and writers whenever his team would go to investigate a war crimes case.
Defence counsel Abdus Sukur Khan in his discharge petition told the tribunal that a case was filed with Tarail police station on March 26, 1972 in which Hassan was accused. He added that the prosecution could not present the court with any development of that case.
When the tribunal asked the prosecution about that case, they failed to give an answer.
The tribunal then adjourned the hearing.
"Please come up with adequate preparations and satisfy us," it observed.
Earlier, Mohammad Ali had claimed they had enough evidence to prove the six charges against the fugitive suspect. During his one-hour submission of the evidence, he described the charges brought against Hassan.
JABBAR'S CASE
A martyr's wife yesterday described how an auxiliary force to the Pakistani occupation army had shot her husband dead under the instruction of war crimes accused Abdul Jabbar in Phuljhuri of Pirojpur district during the Liberation War.
Nurjahan Begum, 70, also the seventh prosecution witness in the case, told the three-member tribunal that Jabbar had ordered Razakars to catch her husband Abdur Razzak Biswas and another freedom fighter Motaleb Sharif dead or alive on May 16, 1971.
Several Razakars had cordoned their house off around 4:00pm that day, she said. “Motaleb Sharif tried to escape but Razakars shot him dead. The Razakars shot below her husband's navel after catching him from another house where he had taken shelter,” she said.
Nurjahan had taken shelter at another house with her severely injured husband while Motaleb's body was lying on the ground of his house.
The Razakars set fire to Motaleb's house the next day and his body burned in the fire, she further said.
“I took my husband to the Rayenda village in Bagerhat where he succumbed to his injury three days later. I buried him at our house after another three days,” she added.
“Jabbar is responsible for my husband's killing. I want his punishment,” Nurjahan said.
Jabbar, a former lawmaker of the Jatiya Partly, was the chairman of Mathbaria Peace Committee in Pirojpur in 1971. He faces five charges for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the war.
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