The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Tuesday kept pending its verdict to be delivered any day after formally closing law-point arguments from both sides in the trial of the war crimes allegedly perpetrated by detained Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general M Kamaruzzaman.
Closing the arguments, Justice Obaidul Hassan, chairman of the three-member tribunal, pronounced a Latin legal term saying, “We’re keeping the case as a CAV.”
CAV (curia advisari vult) means the court reserves time for delivering judgment after hearing lawyers’ submissions.
The prosecution lawyers today (Tuesday) presented their replies to the defence law-point arguments. Earlier, the defence had concluded summing-up arguments in the Kamaruzzaman case.
On June 4 last year, the tribunal indicted M Kamaruzzaman on seven charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The charges are based on seven separate incidents of crimes against humanity that left at least 183 unarmed people killed and some women raped.
Born in Sherpur in July 1952, Kamaruzzaman was the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha’s (ICS) local unit of greater Mymensingh in 1971. The ICS was a student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. After Bangladesh’s independence, it was renamed as Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS).
Accused Kamaruzzaman had played the key role in the formation of Al Badr derived from the ICS members to collaborate with the Pakistan occupation army that committed genocide and other heinous crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, according to the prosecution.
Eighteen prosecution witnesses, including the investigation officer of the case, testified against Kamaruzzaman. Five people also testified for the accused.
Source: UNB Connect
