Jamaat leader Yusuf lands in jail

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The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday sent war crimes accused nayeb-e-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami AKM Yusuf, founder of notorious Razakar outfit, to Dhaka Central Jail keeping his bail petition pending.

The tribunal passed the order at its chamber after the accused was produced before it in the afternoon. The hearing on the bail petition will be held on Monday, said the tribunal order.

Earlier, Yusuf, now 84, was arrested from his Dhanmondi residence at 12.45 pm, hours after the tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes.

The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, passed the order after taking cognisance of his offence of the 1971 war crimes submitted by the prosecution.

Earlier, on May 8, the prosecution submitted formal charges against Yusuf, the second man in the hierarchy of Jamaat leadership.

The tribunal also asked the law enforcers to produce the accused before it on or before May 26.

The prosecution pressed 15 counts of charges, including genocide, killing, loot, arson, deportation of people and religious conversion, against the Jamaat leader.

The charges fall under 3(2), 4 (1) and 4 (2) of the updated International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.

According to the prosecution, accused Yusuf, a member of the Malek Cabinet, a rubberstamp government backed by the Pakistan junta, had formed for the first time in Khulna in 1971 the vigilante group Razakar, derived from the members of Jamaat-e-Islami that acted as an auxiliary force of the Pakistan occupation army to actively thwart the Bangladesh liberation forces.

Source: UNBConnect