The International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday deferred to August 18 the hearing on the framing of charges against detained Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Amir Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
It directed the prison authorities to allow defence counsels Tajul Islam and Tanveer Ahmed Al-Amin to meet and consult Sayedee at the prison on August 16 for the whole day.
The meeting and consultation will be a privileged communication and none other than the three will be allowed to stay there, ordered the tribunal, better known as the war crimes tribunal, instituted on 25 March, 2010 for the trial of the 1971 war crimes.
It also asked the prosecution to submit again to the tribunal by August 14 the documents, including the formal charge and evidences, it had earlier submitted as 97 pages of the 400-page document were illegible.
The tribunal of Justice Nizamul Huq, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir and Judge AKM Zahir Ahmed asked the defence counsels for Sayedee to procure the copy of the documents on August 14.
The tribunal passed the order after hearing an application filed by Sayedee seeking adjournment of the hearing on the framing of charges.
Moving the application, Tanveer argued that they needed time to get prepared for the hearing as they received the documents on July 27.
Although the tribunal asked them to receive the copy on July 14, the prosecution had made delay in submitting the documents to the registrar of the tribunal, the counsel said.
He also argued that 97 pages of the documents were illegible and prayed for a directive on the prosecution to provide the defence with a fresh copy.
He also argued that they needed to consult Sayedee about the charges pressed and documents submitted against him before the hearing on the framing of charges.
Prosecutor Ziad-Al-Malum said that the prosecution would provide the defence with fresh copy of the documents and the defence counsels could be allowed to consult Sayedee in accordance with the jail code.
Sayedee was on the dock during Wednesday's proceedings.
Nicholas Koumjian, a senior war crimes prosecutor who most recently was in charge of the prosecution of former Liberia president Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, is now in Dhaka on behalf of the US's war crimes ambassador-at-large Steven Rapp to 'assess developments' in the tribunal. He was present at the court observing the proceedings.
Earlier on July 14, the tribunal took cognisance of the first-ever charges of war crimes pressed against Sayedee and posted for Wednesday the hearing in the framing of charges in the case, recorded as ICT Case-1/2011 against Sayedee.
Sayedee is the first man who is now facing charges of war crimes committed during the War of Independence in 1971.
Apart from Sayedee, Jamaat's Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla, and Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, also a lawmaker, have been detained on charge of committing war crimes, along with others.
All of them have been interrogated at the government designated 'safe house' at Dhanmandi for a day each.
The tribunal on July 12 ordered the prosecution to submit the report of the investigation against the detained four top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders—Nizami, Mojaheed, Kamaruzzaman and Quader Molla—by August 1.
The tribunal, however, on March 31 granted bail to former BNP lawmaker and minister Abdul Alim on certain conditions.
Source : New Age
