The investigation agency of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) submitted the final probe report against senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Kashem Ali to the prosecution team yesterday.
Now the prosecution will submit the formal charges against him before the ICT-1.
On April 24, allowing a prosecution plea, the ICT-1 extended time, for the seventh time, for the submission of formal charges against the Jamaat leader. After hearing the plea, the tribunal headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir fixed May 9 for the submission of the charges.
The probe agency brought 14 charges against him including murder, mass killing, genocide, looting, rape and torture on minorities during the 1971 Liberation War.
On June 17 last year the police arrested Mir Kashem from a newspaper office in the capital hours after the ICT-1 issued a warrant for his arrest.
At a press briefing on Monday, the investigation panel said it took them three years to complete the investigation. Mir Kashem is an executive council member of Jamaat and is also the party’s treasurer.
According to probe report, Mir Kashem who at the time was the Chittagong district commander of al-Badr, had perpetrated crimes against humanity like killing, looting, abduction, persecution, genocide, rape and arson attacks on unarmed civilians during the Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistani occupational army.
The accused, who was involved with the former Islami Chhatra Shangha—now known as the Islami Chhatra Shibir—had set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city. Here, supporters of the independence of Bangladesh were severely punished. The probe agency said Mir Kashem committed mass killings at Asadnagar and Pachlaish in Chittagong during the war.
Investigation officer Nurul Islam, who is also the investigator in the case against another suspect, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, said Mir Kashem was guilty of the genocide,lootings and many murders that happened in 1971 in Chittagong.
He said they had been working on this case since July 16, 2010. The prosecution has placed development reports on the investigation five times since July 2010.
The tribunal has already delivered verdicts against Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah and Delawar Hossain Sayedee. A verdict is also awaited in the two war crimes cases against former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman. Expelled Jamaat member Abul Kalam Azad was also sentenced to death.
On May 2, the ICT 2 issued warrants for the arrests of al-Badr commander-in-chief Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and its chief executor Ashrafuzzaman Khan. Charges were laid against them on April 25.
Besides these, Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed are facing trial. Investigations against its nayeb-e-ameer, AKM Yusuf were finalised last month. Meanwhile two other detained Jamaat leaders, Abdus Sobhan and ATM Azharul Islamare still being investigated.
Now business tycoon
Hailing from Manikganj's Harirampur, Mir Kashem is the chairman of Diganta Media Corporation that owns Diganta Television and the daily Naya Diganta newspaper. According to the Ibn Sina Trust website, Mir Kashem is a member of the Ibn Sina board of trustees, former vice-chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, founder and director of Saudi-financed Islamic NGO Rabeta-al-alam-al-Islami, founder and chairman of Fuad Al Khatib Foundation, chairman of Agro Industrial Trust, and founder and chairman of Bangladesh Sangscritic Kendro. He is one of the top businessmen of Jamaat. On April 28, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament that Jamaat had signed an agreement with a US lobbyist firm to make the trial of war criminals “controversial." He said Mir Kashem had paid $25m for this purpose while claiming that the government had copies of the receipts and the agreement.