Charge framing of Subhan deferred

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday deferred its decision on framing war crimes charges against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan.
The tribunal was supposed to decide yesterday whether war crimes charges would be framed against Subhan for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity and genocide during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, chairman of the three-member tribunal, yesterday said they could not complete preparing the charge-framing order, and therefore, December 31 had been fixed to pass the order.
On September 15, the prosecution pressed nine charges against the Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer, and said the role of Subhan was similar to that of war crimes convict and former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam during the war.
According to the charges, Subhan, vice-president of the Pabna Peace Committee, was involved in at least nine incidents of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Subhan, son of Sheikh Naimuddin and Nurani Begum of Tailakundi village in Sujanagar upazila of Pabna, was the founder ameer of Jamaat in the district, and a Majlish-e-Sura member of the party’s central unit in the then undivided Pakistan, said the prosecution.
The hearing on charge framing against the Jamaat leader began on October 2. The prosecution prayed that the tribunal frame war crimes charges against Subhan.
Senior defence lawyer Abdur Razzaq finished his arguments against charge framing on November 24. On that day, the tribunal fixed December 18 for passing the order.
Subhan, who was brought to the tribunal, was not produced before the judge.