Charge hearing adjourned

The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday adjourned the charge hearing against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah till today as the prosecutor dealing with the case appeared to be unprepared to place his arguments.
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali, who was supposed to present his arguments in support of the formal charges against the Jamaat leader, was so perplexed in his submission that at one point the judges had to brief him on how he should proceed.
Eventually, the three-member tribunal asked the prosecutor to take some more time for preparation and granted him one more day.
Abdul Quader Mollah is facing seven charges of crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War of 1971. He was not produced before the court as per the tribunal's decision.
Shortly after Mohammad Ali began the proceedings against the Jamaat leader, tribunal member Justice ATM Fazle Kabir interrupted him and pointed out that the formal charges identified Mollah as an Al Badr leader.
“But do you have any document that mentions him as an Al Badr leader?”
Mohammad Ali then referred to a document on the seizure list and cited a page number. He then proceeded to reading out the document that turned out be a 2007 newspaper report.
The report outlined the incidents of late March, 1971 that the prosecutor had read out before the tribunal from the formal charges.
Before he could go further, Justice Kabir interrupted him and said, “But this is not what I was looking for”.
The judges reminded the prosecutor that the tribunal wanted to know if there was any evidence or document showing that Quader Mollah had been an Al Badr leader.
Prosecutor Ali then began rummaging through the documents in front of him trying to locate what he was asked for.
The prosecutor then said he would answer the query later. He went on to read another part of the formal charge.
The tribunal interrupted him once again saying that he had already read the formal charge once.
Later the prosecutor told the tribunal that he did not have any witnesses for the first four charges against Quader Mollah.
His colleagues, however, reminded him from the bench that there were indeed witnesses for those charges.
The prosecutor stuck to his position and said, "No".
At this point, the tribunal chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq proceeded to provide the prosecutor with some tips.
He said the prosecutor should make a list of evidence in support of the charges. “There are only seven charges. It should not take very long”.
Given the confusion all around, the tribunal suggested that the prosecutor take some more time for preparation, and adjourned the proceedings till today.
CHARGE HEARING AGAINST GHULAM AZAM ADJOURNED
The tribunal yesterday adjourned the charge hearing against former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam till Match 19 as his chief counsel Barrister Abdur Razzaq is out of the city for a professional matter.
The adjournment came after Tajul Islam, a defence counsel of Azam, appealed to the court for some time, as the chief counsel's presence is vital in the court proceedings.
CHARGES AGAINST NIZAMI
Prosecutor Altaf Uddin Ahmed yesterday began reading out the formal charges against Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami.
He finished reading 23 pages out of the 73-page formal charges. He will continue to read out the charges today.
Abdul Quader Mollah, Ghulam Azam and Motiur Rahman Nizami are three of six Jamaat and two BNP leaders who are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the tribunal.