The International Crimes Tribunal has fixed January 31 to begin the trial against nine people, including former Jatiya Party MP Shakhawat Hossain.
The eight other accused in the case are Md Billal Hossain Biswas, Md Ibrahim Hossain, Sheikh Md Mojibur Rahman, MA Aziz Sarder, Abdul Aziz Sarder, Kazi Ohidul Islam, Md Lutfur Morhal and Md Abdul Khalek.
Among them, only Shakhawat, Billal and Lutfar are in police custody. On September 8, the tribunal accepted charges against the nine and cleared three other suspects of the charges.
The charges include abduction, confinement, torture, murder and rape at Keshabpur upazila’s Boga, Chingra, Hijaldanga and Mahadebpur villages.
The three-member tribunal led by Justice Anwarul Haque framed five charges of crimes against humanity against the nine accused. Shakhawat, Billal and Lutfar were produced before the court in the morning.
A former Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Shakhawat is currently Jatiya Party’s religious affairs secretary. He was elected an MP from Jessore 6 constituency with a Jamaat ticket in 1991. He later left the party and joined the BNP. He was also involved with the LDP and the PDP.
He contested the 2014 national elections from JaPa but lost the battle.