Defence counsel for the war crimes accused are apparently reluctant to pay heed to the advice of the International Crimes Tribunal -1 over uninterrupted trial through arrangement of substitute if the key counsel remains absent due to personal difficulties.
As the case of war crimes accused Mobarak Hossain came up for deposition of defence witness (DW-2), a defence counsel prayed for adjournment as his key counsel left for India for medical check up without making any alternative arrangement.
Designated prosecutor Syed HaiderAli opposed the verbal adjournment plea made by the defence as it was not backed by any supporting papers, and prayed for closing the deposition of DW, fixing the date for summing up arguments of the case for ‘ends of justice’.
Hearing both the sides, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, however, allowed the defence adjournment plea till March 18 subject to making available alternative arrangement of conducting defence counsel, if necessary.
On April 23 last year, the tribunal indicted Mobarak Hossain, a commander of Razakar, a vigilante group of Pakistan occupation army in 1971, for committing the crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
According to the prosecution, Mobarak, also a former rokan (a qualified member) of Jamaat-e-Islami, ad acted as Razakar commander at the makeshift Shuhilpur camp in Brahmanbaria in 1971.
The tribunal considered five specific charges against Mubarak like murder, torture, looting, killing and abduction under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 sans genocide as pressed by the prosecution.
According to the designated investigator under the ICT, Mobarak had performed as organising secretary of Mogra union unit of Awami League in Akhaura, Brahmanbaria for long 16 years.
Khodeja Begum, whose father was allegedly killed by Mobarak, filed a case with Brahmanbaria court in 2009 that was transferred to the International Crimes Tribunal in 2011.
The tribunal then asked its investigation agency to probe the matter.
Source: UNBConnect
