The International Crimes Tribunal 2 on Wednesday deferred hearing on the charge framing against war crimes suspect Syed M Qaisar and set December 5 to start with the prosecution’s hearing.
The tribunal gave the order upon a defence plea seeking time.
Defence lawyer Abdus Sobhan Tarafder in his plea said they needed time to get the prosecution documents and for preparation.
On the other hand, prosecutor Rana Das Gupta mentioned that they had submitted all the relevant documents to the tribunal’s registrar office on Tuesday.
On November 14, the tribunal took into cognisance the war crime charges against Qaisar, a Peace Committee leader from Habiganj, for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
The prosecution submitted 18 formal charges against Qaisar on November 10 that include killing, extermination, enslavement, deportation, abduction, confinement, torture, looting, arson and assisting in rape.
Arrested on May 16, Qaisar has since been on conditional bail for his ill health and age.
During the war, he had been involved with Muslim League and formed “Qaisar Bahini” to collaborate with the Pakistani occupation army. After the war, he joined the BNP and later became a state minister during the tenure of military dictator HM Ershad.
