MP 'on the run' joins Sangsad
Police cannot “find” Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad even though he showed up in parliament yesterday.
International Crimes Tribunal-2 on March 6 issued arrest warrants against the MP from Cox's Bazar-2 constituency and two other Jamaat leaders for deliberately not showing up before the court on charges of contempt of court.
The police had twice told Tribunal-2 that the lawmaker could not be found.
Yet Azad, with the arrest warrant outstanding, spoke at a public meeting protected by law enforcers.
On February 7, the tribunal asked Azad and Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan and the party's Dhaka city unit assistant secretary general Selim Uddin to appear before it and explain as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for their comments about the ongoing trials and the tribunal at a rally on February 4.
They never explained nor appeared before the court, which led the tribunal to issue arrest warrants.
Police arrested and produced Selim, but twice, on April 10 and again on April 21, told the court that the other two were on the run.
However, on May 4, Azad addressed a rally of the 18-party opposition alliance in the capital in the presence of hundreds of law enforcers and yesterday he showed up in parliament.
When asked about police not being able to find Azad despite his being in the public domain, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker on May 4 told The Daily Star, “I'll have to tell you after checking it out.”
Officer-in-Charge Habibur Rahman of Moheshkhali Police Station in Cox's Bazar said police were unable to find Azad in Moheshkhali, the place he was elected lawmaker from.
He expressed surprised at the fact that Azad was in parliament. He said since Azad did not return to Moheshkhali they could not arrest him.
The tribunal is likely to deliver the verdict in the contempt of court proceedings against the three Jamaat leaders on June 9. If Azad and the other two are found guilty, they could be imprisoned for up to one year and fined Tk 5,000 each.
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