The government has initiated a process to merge the two international crimes tribunals from Sunday as the number of pending cases have come down.
Law Minister Anisul Huq Thursday said a gazette notification might be issued in this regard. The government started the process to merge the tribunal into a single one in consultation with the Supreme Court, he said.
“One of the tribunals will be inactive and its judges will work for the High Court. It can be made functional in the future, if necessary for disposal of the cases,” the minister added.
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.
