The defence counsel for war crimes accused Mir Quasem Ali, now a Jamaat-e-Islami policymaker, on Sunday told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that the prosecution had submitted formal charge against his client that is ‘insufficient and has factual lacking’.
“The charges are not specific with date and time of occurrence against Mir Quasem Ali,” said Barrister Tanvir Ahmed Al Amin while submitting the discharge petition.
The Jamaat stalwart faces 14 counts of charges of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
As charges are disputed question of facts, the prosecution will have to prove those by supporting documents with evidence for commission of the offence perpetrated by the accused, the defence counsel said, claiming that the prosecution documents submitted to the tribunal do not show such credibility.
Barrister Tanvir also said that the prosecution had “failed to fulfill the elements required for proving the allegations” against Mir Quasem Ali in the formal charge.
The hearing on the discharge petition remained inconclusive.
According to the prosecution case, accused Mir Quasem Ali, also a front ranking leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS) in 1971, had perpetrated various crimes against humanity like killing, looting, abduction, persecution, genocide, rape, extortion and setting fire to the houses of unarmed civilians during the Liberation War in collaboration with Pakistan occupation army.
The charge ‘extortion’ has been included for the first time by the prosecution marking it as crimes against humanity under section 3 (2) (a) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.
Quasem Ali had acted as Chittagong district head of Al Badr, a vigilante group of Jamaat-e-Islami, in 1971.
The war-crimes accused had also set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city where freedom-loving people were handed down punishment.
Police produced the accused in the tribunal amid tight security before the defence counsel made submission in the case.
On July 25, the designated prosecutor while making submission urged the tribunal to start trial terming it a ‘very fit case’ as the prosecution has sufficient documents and oral evidence against accused Mir Quasem Ali for his alleged crimes
Source: UNBConnect