Tribunal to hear retrial plea of war accused tomorrow

By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 in Bangladesh will hear a petition of three top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders — Ghulam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami and Delwar Hossain Sayedee — for retrial tomorrow.

The three Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have been charged with committing crimes against humanity during country’s Liberation War in 1971.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said there is no provision of retrial in the ICT law at this stage of trial. “They can appeal against the verdict, if they want to do so, and there is scope for it in the law.”

After the hearing, the Alam said the defence’s only aim is to lengthen the trial by any means.

The petition was filed on December 19, after vernacular daily Amar Desh published the transcript of alleged Skype conversations between former Tribunal-1 chief Justice Nizamul Huq and expatriate legal expert Dr Ahmed Ziauddin.

Conversations focused doctoring of the verdicts.

The tribunal yesterday saw heated exchanges between Fakhrul Islam, counsel for BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, another war crimes accused, and the Attorney General as the Fakhrul alleged that the chief justice and Justice S K Sinha of the Supreme Court were ‘involved’ in the Skype scandal and the AG tried to oppose it.