Justice Rahim appointed chairman

The government yesterday appointed Justice M Enayetur Rahim, a High Court judge, as chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
The law ministry has issued a gazette notification on this appointment, says a ministry press release. Justice Enayetur will enjoy salaries, allowances and other facilities of a sitting HC judge, it said.
HC sources said the new chairman will join office today.
The chairman post of Tribunal-1 fell vacant on December 31 last year as Justice ATM Fazle Kabir went into retirement.
Since, fives cases, including the one against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, in the tribunal have seen no progress.
Apart from the case of Nizami, the cases against Jamaat leaders ATM Azharul Islam and Abdus Sobhan, BNP leader Zahid Hossain Khokon, and Mobarak Hossain, former Jamaat-e-Islami member who later got affiliated with ruling Awami League, are under trial in the tribunal.
Besides, several petitions regarding contempt of court are also pending.
On November 13 last year, the tribunal kept Nizami's case waiting for the verdict. As per the war crimes law, a tribunal can resume a case's trial from where it stopped even after any change in the judges' panel.
But, the Tribunal-1 had heard the closing arguments of both the prosecution and the defence in the war crimes case against another Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee for the second time after its chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq stepped down over a controversy.
ATM Fazle Kabir then took over the tribunal charge.
Tajul Islam, counsel for Nizami, yesterday told The Daily Star: “We will make decisions on the basis of the tribunal's next decision.”
“We may file a retrial petition too,” he added.