Ignoring the prosecution objection, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday allowed the defence review plea for submitting the stalled oral arguments over the war crimes case faced by accused 1971 Al Badr commander-in-chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, now ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami.
This is for the first time the tribunal allowed such review plea over its order that had kept pending its verdict to be delivered any day after closing the ongoing defence summing up arguments three days ago.
On November 13, throwing out the defence adjournment petition, the three–member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, after a day’s argument closed the chapter considering the factual aspect that the defence counsel keeps on skipping trial proceedings during hartal hours.
The tribunal, however, had permitted the defence counsel to submit the remaining summing-up arguments, including law–points, in writing within five days for ‘ends of justice’.
Resuming his further arguments today (Sunday), defence counsel Mizanul Islam told the tribunal that the prosecution had ‘miserably failed’ to substantiate correctly the charge made against Nizami as the founder of Al Badr, the vigilante group of Jamaat-e-Islami, and its commander–in-chief, during the Liberation war as the prosecution witnesses made contradictory evidence in this regard and the documents placed before the tribunal in support of the charge were confusing because of different versions.
About the evidence of the investigation officer (IO), the defence counsel said his evidence can’t be a credible one as he had stated Nizami was out and out a civilian during the whole nine month of Liberation War.
“If the IO’s statement is considered as true then how a civilian holds the post of commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a paramilitary outfit of Pakistan occupation force?” he raised the question.
About the charge made against Nizami behind the killing of intellectuals at the fag end of Bangladesh’s Liberation War, Mizanul said according to the defence reference books and papers it’s very difficult to reach a conclusion that Nizami was the mastermind of intellectuals’ killing.
“Someone tells that the plot of killing of intellectuals was made at the house of the daily Pakistan Observer, someone points finger at Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali, a key player for Pakistan during the Liberation War, while someone found the blueprint of killing of intellectuals at the Dhanmondi house of a veteran Muslim League leader, Khan A Sabur.”
The prosecution failed to show any cogent proof that accused Nizami in association with the Pakistan army had made the conspiracy to kill the intellectuals, argued the defence counsel.
About accused Al Badr chief Nizami’s regular visit to the Physical Training Institute at Mohammadpur which turned into a training centre for Razakar and Al Badr and also used as torture cell for the freedom-loving people of different professions, defecne counsel Mizanul said the prosecution placed only one witness in this regard, even without any supporting document. “A single witness without any corroborating evidence has no credibility of proving the charge,” he added.
Branding the prosecution witnesses against Nizami as touts and frauds, and the case a make over, Mizanul alleged that the prosecution brought them before the tribunal to make tutored evidence.
The defence wrap-up arguments remained inconclusive, which will resume tomorrow (Monday).
A former minister during the past BNP-Jamaat rule, Nizami is being tried on charges of involvement in murders and torture of unarmed people along with hatching conspiracies, planning, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation army.
Nizami faces 16 counts of charges based on 16 separate incidents of crimes against humanity, in which at least 600 unarmed people were killed and 31 women raped during the Liberation War.
The prosecution did not press one charge (charge No. 5–Iswardi mass killing) as they failed to produce its witnesses.
On May 28, 2012, the tribunal indicted the Jamaat ameer for committing the 1971 crimes against humanity.
On June 29, 2010, Nizami was arrested in front of the National Press Club after a magistrate court in Dhaka issued warrant of arrest in connection with a criminal case over hurting religious sentiment of Muslims. Later, responding to a prosecution plea, the tribunal on July 22 shown him arrested in connection with the war crimes case.
Source: UNBConnect
