Lawyer of a prosecution witness claimed his client’s alleged assault on war crimes suspect Mujahid’s lawyer was “a fiction.”
On May 27, Munshi Ahsan Kabir, one of the lawyers of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, filed a contempt of court petition with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) accusing prosecution witness Jahir Uddin (alias Bichchu Jalal) of beating him in the capital’s Shegunbagicha area.
In the petition, Kabir alleged Jahir attacked him using abusive words as he was performing the duties of a defence lawyer.
On May 28, ICT 2 issued a show cause notice to Jahir asking him why contempt proceedings should not be taken against him for assaulting a defence lawyer.
In reply, Jahir’s lawyer Md Mohsen Rasid told ICT 2 on Sunday his client was being framed in dubious plots because he was an important witness against war crimes suspects Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, and was set to give depositions against the fugitive suspects Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Asharfuzzaman Khan.
“This could be a strategic plan to discredit him in some way or the other, or it could be a case of mistaken identity,” Mohsen Rasid told the court.
The prosecution witness’s lawyer also said: “It has been two months. My client was not in that area either before or after the alleged incident. Such an allegation is totally baseless. It is nothing but a fiction.”
Mohsen also told the tribunal his client was a freedom fighter and was ready to accept any sort of inquiry into the alleged attack.
Later, defence lawyers Ahsan Kabir, also the petitioner, and M Tajul Islam prayed for time for replying to Mohsen’s statement.
The tribunal set July 11 for a further hearing on the contempt of court petition.
ICT 2 may pronounce the verdict against Jamaat Secretary General Mujahid any day for his involvement in crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.
On June 5, ICT 2, led by Justice Obaidul Hasan, concluded the proceedings of the case, setting no date and time for the verdict.
