The prosecution yesterday prayed for framing charges against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali for his alleged crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.
Reading out 14 war crimes charges, prosecutor Sultan Mahmud Simon told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that they had enough documentary evidence besides oral testimony against the accused.
The prosecution yesterday completed their part of initial submission on formal charges.
The tribunal led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir gave the defence 13 days to prepare their submission. The defence is set to place their submission on formal charges on August 7.
The defence yesterday appealed to the tribunal that they needed three days for privilege communication with Quasem.
Allowing two defence counsels for the privilege communication on July 28 and August 1, the tribunal gave necessary instruction to the jail authorities.
Quasem's son Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem and Tanvir Ahmed Al-Amin have been allowed to consult with the war crimes accused at jail.
During his submission Simon pointed out the highlighted portions of the formal charges and briefly read out the 14 charges.
Simon identified Quasem as an influential commander of infamous Al-Badr force that was dubbed by some historians as the “angel of death”.
A recent tribunal judgement convicted Al-Badr organiser and Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman. The verdict said Al-Badr was a fascist armed wing of Jamaat that carried out dreadful criminal activities in violation of customary international laws in 1971.
Al-Badr, widely known for the planned killings of the intellectuals at the fag-end of the war, was constituted with members of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat.
Quasem was Chhatra Sangha general secretary and war crimes accused Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was its president since October in 1971, said Simon.
Among the 14 charges, two charges were pressed for the killing of eight people. The remaining charges were for torture, arson, looting and abduction committed between November and December 16, 1971.
Charges 1-10 and 13 and 14 were brought against Quasem in connection with abduction, torture and detaining 27 people in Chittagong and setting fire to houses and shops.
Charge 11 read one Jasim along with five unidentified people was abducted sometime after Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971. They were detained and tortured at Dalim Hotel in Andorkilla and were killed later.
According to charge No. 12, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Ranjit Das Prokash Latu and Tuntu Sen were kidnapped sometime in November in 1971. Latu and Tuntu were later killed and their bodies were never found.
Quasem was arrested on June 17, 2012 after the tribunal issued a warrant of arrest. He was brought before the tribunal yesterday.