After hearing closing arguments by both prosecution and defence, the International Crimes Tribunal yesterday kept the Mir Kashem Ali case waiting for verdict. The Jamaat-e-Islami Executive Council member faces 14 charges of crimes against humanity he had allegedly committed in Chittagong in 1971.
Kashem, 61, also treasurer and key financier of Jamaat, is charged for involvement in murder, torture, abduction and confinement of people during the Liberation War.
According to the prosecution, the accused was general secretary of Chittagong City unit Islami Chhatra Sangha – then Jamaat’s student wing, and a commander of notorious armed force al-Badr – formed with the members of Chhatra Sangha to collaborate with the Pakistani occupation forces.
He allegedly led the torture and killings of pro-liberation people at Daleem Hotel at Andorkilla of the port city.
During the arguments, the prosecution demanded capital punishment for the accused, known as “Bangalee Khan,” as the evidence and witness statements had established the crimes.
On the other hand, the defence of Kashem claimed that the prosecution had failed to prove their “false charges.” They also refuted the allegation that the accused had been the commander of the auxiliary force.
After the end of trial, defence counsel Tajul Islam claimed that his client had not been present at the places of occurrence, Daleem Hotel and Chittagong, since November 1971.
During the rebuttal yesterday, prosecutor Tureen Afroz told the tribunal that joint criminal enterprise and criminal responsibility were not charges, as the defence has tried to claim, but liabilities.
“The defence tried to find some loophole in the prosecution’s case. But that cannot spare the accused from the charges as we know cases are run by available witnesses and evidence.”
After the hearing, the tribunal 2 led by Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan ordered that the verdict in this case would be pronounced any day.
The tribunal 1 took the charges against Kashem into cognisance on May 26 last year and indicted him on September 5 last year. Later the case was shifted to the other tribunal for quick disposal. Though senior defence counsel Abdur Razzaq was involved in this case earlier, he was not present in the last part as he is out of the country.
Kashem was arrested from the daily Naya Diganta office in the capital on June 17 last year.
Two other cases are awaiting verdict at the tribunal 1 – one against Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and the other of Zahidul Islam Khokon alias Khokon Razakar.
According to the defence documents, Kashem is the chairman of Keari Ltd, a real estate and tourism company, chairman of the managing committee of Diganta Media Corporations that runs Diganta TV and the daily Naya Diganta. He is also a founding member of Ibn Sina Trust, member secretary of Islami Bank Foundation and a founding member of Islami Bank.
According to the government, it has evidence that Kashem paid a US lobbyist firm $25m to negate the war crimes trials.
In their legal argument, the defence claimed that the prosecution had failed to prove any charges against the accused of commanding authority. They argued that only military personnel could command in a war situation.
The tribunal then told the defence counsel that precedence of a civilian having the responsibility of a commander had been established in the verdicts against war criminals Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed.
The defence also argued that someone without an administrative post can not be responsible for the allegations of superior command responsibility.
Kashem is charged with the abduction, confinement and torture of many pro-liberation people including Omar-ul-Islam Chowdhury, Lutfar Rahman Faruk, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Saifuddin Khan, Abdul Jabbar Member, Sanaullah Chowdhury, Nurul Kuddus, Zakaria, Sunil Kanti Bardhan and Nasiruddin Chowdhury.
According to the prosecution, Kashem also set up makeshift camps at different places of the port city where people had been tortured for assisting the freedom fighters. Other allegations against him include involvement in mass killings in Asadnagar and Panchlaish areas.
The same tribunal yesterday recorded the testimony of the 10th prosecution witness in the case against war crimes accused Syed Mohammad Qaisar. The witness gave deposition on camera.
