Former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam, being tried on charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, cannot be punished because of the prosecution’s failure, said principal defence counsel Barrister Abdur Razzaq.
Talking to reporters after closing the defence’s summing-up arguments on law points, Barrister Razzaq on Monday claimed that both the prosecution and the investigation agency under the International Crimes Tribunal-1 had miserably failed to provide any well-built evidence against his client to prove the charges of crimes, including the 1971 genocide.
Razzaq also claimed that the prosecution during the trial could not submit any valid documents and evidence with prosecution witnesses to prove the specific five charges made against Ghulam Azam under 61 counts of crimes against humanity.
On May 13 last year, the tribunal indicted self-confessed Pakistan collaborator (exonerated) Ghulam Azam for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
The charges against him include involvement in murder and torture of unarmed people, conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity to commit genocide and crimes against humanity during the war in collaboration with Pakistani junta and its auxiliary forces like Razakar, peace committees, Al Badr and Al Shams.
Before framing charges against the accused, the tribunal had considered the five charges under 61 counts of crimes against humanity as proposed by the prosecution which fall under sections 3 (2) and 4 (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.
So far, defence lawyers Barrister Abdur Razzaq, Mizanul Islam and Barrister Imran Siddiq exhausted 13 working days to make their summing-up arguments in the case of Ghulam Azam, now in custody.
Earlier, the prosecution lawyers had taken 10 working days in this regard.
As the defence lawyers’ closing arguments over, the three-member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, asked the designated prosecution lawyers to reply to the defence arguments.
But both prosecutors Barrister Tureen Afroz and Sultan Mahmud Simon prayed for deferring the reply to the defence summing-up arguments at least one day for preparation as some new points were put forward by the defence counsel.
Hearing the prosecution plea, the tribunal fixed Wednesday for placing reply to the defence arguments.
Meanwhile, the scheduled deposition of a prosecution witness against detained Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami could not take place today (Monday) as the PW-4 fell sick after appearing before the tribunal.
The tribunal, as urged by the prosecution, re-fixed the matter on Tuesday.
Source: UNB Connect
