Tribunal reading out verdict

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman is being taken to International Crimes Tribunal for judgement for wartime offences. Photo courtesy: Shahbagh Chattar Facebook group

A tribunal in Dhaka, which is dealing with the wartime crimes against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, started reading out the summary of the judgement Thursday morning.
A prison van carrying Kamaruzzaman entered the tribunal premises around 9:30am amid tight security.
Assistant secretary general of the Jamaat, which was instrumental to foil Bangladesh’s struggle for independence, faces charges of seven wartime offences.
The three-member panel of International Crimes Tribunal-2 is set to pronounce its judgement soon.
Kamaruzzaman was known to have been a key organiser of the Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of then Pakistani army which planned and executed the killing of Bangalee intellectuals at the fag end of the Liberation War in 1971, according to historical records.
The tribunal fixed the judgement day on Wednesday, 22 days after the completion of the case proceedings.
THE CHARGES
Abduction and killing of Badiuzzaman; inflicting inhumane torture on pro-liberation intellectual Syed Abdul Hannan; advising the killing of 164 people and rape of many women in Sohagpur; abduction and killing of Golam Mostafa; abduction, confinement and torture of Liakat Ali and Mujibur Rahman Panu and the killing of eight people; abduction and killing of Tunu; and the killing Zahurul Islam Dara and five others.
THE TRIAL
Kamaruzzaman was arrested in a criminal case on July 13, 2010, and shown arrested on war crimes charges on August 2 the same year.
The prosecution pressed formal charges against him incorporating nine counts of crimes against humanity on January 15, 2012, and Tribunal-1 took the charges into cognisance on January 31. The case was transferred to Tribunal-2 on April 16, 2012.
On June 4, 2012, the tribunal indicted Kamaruzzaman on seven charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and torture of unarmed civilians and complicity in other crimes during the nine-month-long war.
The indictment order, in a brief profile of the accused, said Kamaruzzaman, as the president of Islami Chhatra Sangha of greater Mymensingh in 1971, had played the role of a key organiser in the formation of the Al-Badr force.
Under the leadership of Kamaruzzaman, all members of Chhatra Sangha of greater Mymensingh were absorbed into Al-Badr within a month. They, after receiving summary training, launched atrocities targeting the Hindus and unarmed Bangalee civilians in greater Mymensingh, the order said.
As many as 18 prosecution witnesses, including the investigation officer of the case, testified against the accused, while five people, including Kamaruzzaman’s son and brother, testified in favour of the accused between July 15, 2012 and March 24, 2013.
The prosecution and the defence held closing arguments from March 24 until April 16.
The two tribunals dealing with the war crimes cases have already delivered verdicts in three cases. Jamaat Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee and expelled Jamaat member Abul Kalam Azad were sentenced to death while Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah received life imprisonment.
The verdict delivery in the war crimes case against former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam is pending with Tribunal-1.

 Source : The Daily Star