The war crimes tribunal Thursday ended recording deposition of the investigation officer in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.
Md Abdur Razzaque Khan made his testimony as the 26th and last prosecution witness. After his deposition, defence counsel Mizanul Islam started cross examining him, and later sought adjournment of the proceedings for seven days as the witness placed 12 new books as evidence.
The International Crimes Tribunal 1 approved a one-day adjournment and set Monday for further cross-examination.
The prosecution started placing their witnesses against Nizami from August 26 last year. Before Razzaque, they placed 25 witnesses out of 107 against accused. However, the prosecution announced the seventh witness, Pradip Kumar Dev, as “hostile” since he had not mentioned the name of Nizami in his deposition.
Razzaque told the tribunal that during the investigation, he had reviewed the contemporary newspaper reports, especially the daily Sangram, of 1971 and documents including books and audio records and video footage on the Liberation War and its background.
He also visited the places of genocide, killings, mass graves and torture incidents allegedly committed upon the order of Nizami, his cohorts, the Pakistani army, Peace Committee, razakar, al-Badr and al-Shams.
The investigation officer told the tribunal that they could not produce the five witnesses added later in the list since two of them had died last year. So they placed Janey Alam Janu, Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury and Salma Mahmud alias Huq.
Razzaque said another investigation officer Monwara Begum recorded their statements.
On May 28 last year, Nizami was indicted on 16 counts of crimes against humanity he had allegedly committed in Pabna and Dhaka during the 1971 Liberation War. The charges include genocide, rape, torture, abduction, confinement and conspiracy.
Meanwhile, defence counsel of another accused Maulana Abdus Subhan, pleaded for privilege communication with his client as their argument on charge framing will be held on October 2.
Tribunal Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir ordered that they could meet at jail gate tomorrow.
Thursday, the tribunal 2 set October 10 for further procedure of the contempt case against prosecution witness Jahir Uddin Jalal alias Bichchhu Jalal for allegedly beating up defence lawyer Munshi Ahsan Kabir.
The same tribunal also set October 6 for the cross-examination of a prosecution witness in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yusuf, who had allegedly founded the razakar force that sided with the Pakistani occupation army to commit atrocities in 1971.
