On the third day of closing arguments yesterday, the defence of top war crimes suspect Motiur Rahman Nizami denied the charge related to intellectual killings saying that it was not clear.
After the whole day session, they pleaded to the tribunal for another day to place their submission on the legal part. The tribunal allowed them to place arguments on Sunday and asked the prosecution to place their submission, if there was any.
The defence began arguments on March 13, a day after the prosecution ended their submission – on the third day. The defence was earlier asked to complete arguments by yesterday.
Defence counsel Mizanul Islam yesterday said there was no description of any particular incident under charge 16 which is related to the killing of intellectuals in Dhaka just before the country’s independence. He also claimed that the charge framing process was incorrect.
He argued that the investigation officer in his report had not submitted any clue about the charge and also not the note of Rao Farman Ali, a former Pakistani army personnel blamed for masterminding the intellectuals’ killing.
Mizanul also said the journalist who had witnessed the reality of intellectual killings had not been included as a witness in the case. He mentioned that the charge was not clear enough.
He claimed that Nizami was innocent as the charges had not been related with him.
The defence counsel also claimed that the witness who the prosecution had placed to prove the charge was not reliable. “Every part of the deposition of the witness is false, not real.”
Nizami was indicted on May 28, 2012 on 16 counts of crimes against humanity including murder, rape, arson and incitement he had committed in Pabna and Dhaka.
Now the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Nizami had been the chief of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then students’ body of Jamaat.
