Decision on indictment Aug 29

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday fixed August 29 to decide about indicting Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali on crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971.
The tribunal also fixed today to hear a petition filed by the prosecution of the case against former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam seeking contempt proceedings against New York-based Human Rights Watch for its report on the verdict.
The three-member tribunal headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir had fixed the date in Quasem's case after the prosecution gave reply to the arguments on his discharge petition.
The 61-year-old Jamaat leader who was arrested on June 17, 2012 was hauled before the court.
The formal charges accuse Quasem of killing eight Bangalees and torturing at least 27 people in Chittagong during the war.
Prosecutor Sultan Mahmud Simon said Quasem was general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, from November 7, 1971 till the victory of Bangladesh.
Jamaat's incumbent General Secretary Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, who was given capital punishment for committing war crimes, was president of Chhatra Sangha then.
Quoting verdict of Mojaheed's case, another prosecutor Tapas Kanti Baul argued that Quasem was in superior status because of his position and he could not avert superior responsibility.
Simon argued Al-Badr, an anti-liberation force infamous for the planned killings of intellectuals at the fag end of the war, was made up of Chhatra Sangha members.
The judgement of Mojaheed's case reads, “Al-Badr was created under the active vigilance of Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistani occupation army, and it may be unerringly concluded that it acted as an 'auxiliary force' for 'operational', 'static' and 'other purposes' of the occupation armed force.”
Earlier on August 19, the defence placed arguments on their discharge petition.
The defence argued that the charges pressed by the prosecution were not specific and prayed to the tribunal to exonerate Quasem from the charges.
Defence counsel Tanvir Ahmed Al-Amin that day said the identities of the murder victims in the proposed charges No 11-12 were not specified. In charge No 11, the prosecution failed to specify the identity of victim Jashim and other “so-called” five unknown dead, he added.
If the prosecution were unable to provide specific dates of the incidents, they should have refrained from including the events in the formal charge, he said.
Following reply from the prosecution, Tanvir prayed to the tribunal to keep pending the indictment decision until September 8 as chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq was abroad.
The tribunal rejected the prayer and fixed the date.