In a bid to try Jamaat-e-Islami for its crimes against humanity committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, the government is set to amend the International Crimes Tribunal Act.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government is to amend the ICT Act 1973 keeping the provision to try an organisation for wartime offences in 1971.
Anisul said this while talking to the journalists at a hotel in Dhaka on Sunday morning.
He said: “The proposal to amend the International Crimes Tribunals Act will be placed before the cabinet this month [December] or the first week of January for approval.”
“We got delayed in the queue [for amending the act] because of some important laws and matters that were blocked in the pipeline,” the minister said.
In March last year, investigators of crimes against humanity finalised a report against Jamaat, but could not submit it to the tribunal as there is no provision for trying any organisation under the ICT Act, 1973.
According to a proposal of the ministry, the word ‘organisation’ will be included next to the word ‘persons’ or ‘individuals’ in the Section 20(2) of ICT Act.
In this section, words such as ‘individuals or organisations responsibility’ will also be added.
It will also keep a provision where the ICT could take offences in cognisance if any organisation is found guilty.
Top Jamaat leaders who committed crimes against humanity have been brought under trial as per the International Crimes Tribunal Act.
Meanwhile, Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah was executed on December 12, 2013, for his crimes against humanity committed during the war of Bangladesh in 1971.
More appeals were filed with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against death verdicts for the Jamaat leaders awarded by the ICT.
