The war crimes tribunal thursday several times expressed its annoyance over the defence lawyers’ having lack of preparation, redundancy and asking irrelevant questions during the cross examination of the investigation officer in the case against Abdul Alim.
Defence lawyers Ahsanul Haque and with his fellow Khalilur Rahman were conducting the cross examination of ZM Altafur Rahman for the sixth day. The International Crimes Tribunal 2 earlier asked the defence to complete quizzing the IO by Wednesday.
Ahsanul also behaved in a rude manner with his colleague. Following a remark by Khalilur, he threw a sheet of paper on the table and said: “Okay, I would not rather ask any question, any more.”
While speaking on the contradictions of prosecution witnesses, Ahsanul shouted at Sazzad Bin Alim, son of the accused, to show him the contradiction on one physician Farid, who was mentioned by the witnesses. The tribunal then asked Ahsanul: “Who is he? Is he a lawyer?”
As the defence lawyer replied in the negative, the tribunal responded: “Consult with the sons before you come here. You are asking him since you have failed to show us the contradiction. Mr Alim is a lawyer too, call him. He can argue better than you.”
The tribunal of Justice Obaidul Hasan, Justice Mojibur Rahman Miah and Justice Shahinur Islam, however, then allowed Sazzad to help the defence team.
At 1:05pm, the tribunal asked Ahsanul again how much time he needed to end the cross examination. The lawyer sought half an hour. The tribunal expressed frustration saying that the counsel was not prepared.
Then the tribunal, proceedings of which began around 10:40am, told the defence counsels that they would be given 15 more minutes and adjourned the proceedings in the case till 2:25pm.
The tribunal, however, did not leave the court and began proceedings in the case against Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman. At 2:25pm, the defence again started to grill the IO which lasted till 3pm.
During the second session of the cross examination, the tribunal expressed annoyance when Ahsanul asked the investigation officer whether the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act, 1973 mentions about following the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Penal Code or not.
The tribunal then intervened and pointed out that the question was not relevant since it was about law other than the IO’s submission. The tribunal also asked him not to waste time. “Please ask relevant questions.”
Later, mentioning about a material exhibit, Ahsanul asked the IO: “Is it a black and white picture?” Altafur answered in the affirmative. Then the lawyer said the picture contained white colour on the photograph’s top side and its lower part had black. The tribunal asked him: “What are you saying? What is your question?”
Ahsanul said: “If you do so [intervene], how I can go on with the cross examination?” The tribunal responded: “We are trying to understand what your question is.” The lawyer then asked the IO: “There is no army officer in the photo.”
The tribunal told the defence: “Then ask this directly. What is the point of saying ‘white on the top and black on the lower part’?”
Ahsanul also asked the IO whether he had examined the list of razakars (collaborators who sided with the Pakistani occupation army) while investigating the case. The tribunal again intervened and said: “You asked the same question thursday and we recorded it.”
The defence then said their cross examination was complete and the tribunal set August 27 for deposition of defence witnesses. Earlier on Wednesday, the tribunal fixed the number of defence witnesses at three.
On his way out from the tribunal room, Ahsanul was heard telling his fellows: “Let the next government come into power. Then we will see.”
Alim, a former BNP state minister during the tenure of Ziaur Rahman, is facing 17 charges of crimes against humanity he allegedly committed during the Liberation War in Joypurhat as the district Peace Committee president.