The authorities yesterday reshuffled the International Crimes Tribunal 1 and made the tribunal 2 dormant.
The Law Ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard. It says Justice Anwarul Haque, a former member of the tribunal 1, has been appointed as chairman of the tribunal.
Tribunal 2 Member Justice Md Shahinur Islam and High Court Justice Md Shohrowardi have been made its members.
On the other hand, former chairman of tribunal 1 Justice M Enayetur Rahim, former chairman of tribunal 2 Justice Obaidul Hassan and two members of the tribunals – Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah – have been brought back to the High Court Division.
Earlier in the month, the government started the process to merge the two tribunals into a single one in consultation with the Supreme Court.
The Awami League-led government formed the first tribunal on March 25, 2010 to try the collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces who had been involved in murder, rape, arson and looting during the 1971 Liberation War. The second tribunal was formed on March 22, 2012.
So far, the two tribunals have pronounced verdicts in 21 cases including those filed against former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam and current chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.
After the country’s independence on December 16, 1971, then the government established 73 special tribunals across the country to try the local collaborators. The trial proceedings began with 37,471 detained. Some 26,000 were freed under general amnesty declared in 1973.
But those accused of killing, raping, looting and arson were declared beyond the amnesty. The trials continued until the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. The subsequent military-backed government annulled the Collaborator’s Ordinance on December 31 the same year and freed the detainees.