Defence terms report on witnesses 'false'

The defence yesterday told a tribunal that the investigation officer had submitted a false report about 15 prosecution witnesses against Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee, who has been on trial for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War of 1971.
"At least nine of them [witnesses] were waiting at the Golapbagh safe house in the capital, but they were reported sick or missing," said Abdur Razzaq, chief counsel for Sayedee.
"Actually, the prosecutors did not let them come to the tribunal, as they couldn't pursue the witnesses into giving false statements against Delawar Hossain Sayedee," he claimed.
The counsel also termed the investigation report against the Jamaat leader fabricated and urged the court to take steps against the investigator.
On March 29, International Crimes Tribunal-1 accepted the statements of the 15 prosecution witnesses, taken by the investigating officer, as evidence against Sayedee.
Yesterday, the three-member tribunal headed by its Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq was hearing a review petition filed by the defence against taking of the statements as evidence.
During yesterday's hearing, the defence presented some "register books" containing the details of the nine witnesses staying, entering, and having meals at the safe house.
As the tribunal asked the chief defence counsel, Abdur Razzaq, about the source of the "register books", he said they had collected them using "some tricks".
To his astonishment, the conducting prosecutor, Syed Haider Ali, said they did not keep "register books" in safe home, as it was not a prison or police station.
"The witnesses were brought there [safe home] for protection. It's not custody. There is no provision of lodging GD or keeping register books at the protection house in the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973", he said.
"The register books are a fake. There is a clear dishonesty there, and I am astonished how they [defence] could get them."
The tribunal will deliver order over the review petition later.
Delawar Hossain Sayedee, nayeb-e-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, is facing 20 charges of crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.