The war crimes tribunal has set August 29 as the date for passing an order on whether Jamaat-e-Islami executive council member and a key financier of the party Mir Kashem Ali will have to face trial.
After the last day of arguments on charges on Tuesday, prosecutors Sultan Mahmud and Tapas Kanti Baul pleaded to the International Crimes Tribunal 1 to indict Mir Kashem on 14 counts of war crimes.
The prosecution said Mir Kashem was the general secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, and also the Chittagong district commander of al-Badr (a paramilitary group formed with the members of Chhatra Sangha which assisted the Pakistani occupation army during the 1971 Liberation War).
The prosecution argued on the charges on July 25 while the defence finished placing their arguments on August 18. The defence, however, sought another session after September 6, when their senior counsel Abdur Razzaq would place his arguments before the tribunal.
Tribunal Chairman ATM Fazle Kabir set August 29 for passing the order on Mir Kashem’s indictment.
Earlier, on May 26, the tribunal took the formal charges against the Jamaat leader into cognisance and fixed June 27 for the indictment hearing. Following a plea seeking time, the hearing was deferred to July 18. The date was again deferred to August 7 and finally to August 18.
According to the prosecution, Mir Kashem set up makeshift camps at different locations in the port city where the pro-liberation supporters were brought and then tortured. Other allegations against him include involvement in mass killings in the Asadnagar and Panchlaish areas of Chittagong.
Also treasurer of Jamaat, Mir Kashem is involved in various businesses including Islami Bank, Ibn Sina and Diganta Media Corporation Ltd which owns the daily Naya Diganta and Diganta Television.
According to the government, the Jamaat leader paid a US lobbyist firm $25m to ensure the trials were controversial.
