A day after his arrest, alleged war criminal from Bagerhat Abdul Latif Talukder was sent to jail yesterday as he was not represented by a lawyer at the International Crimes Tribunal 1.
Chaired by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, the tribunal also enquired the prosecution about the first two suspects – all accused in a single war crimes case. They are Sirajul Haque alias Siraj Master and Khan Akram Hossain.
The tribunal issued an arrest warrant against the three on June 10 accepting a plea of prosecutor Syed Sayedul Haque.
Latif, 69,was arrested on Wednesday from Bagerhat and immediately brought to Dhaka. He is from Sholarkola under Kochua police station in Bagerhat.
The tribunal yesterday said: “We issued the warrant against three suspects. Where are the two others?” In reply, prosecutor Mokhlesur Rahman said they were trying to catch them, and that the process was underway.
The tribunal then said: “In your [prosecution] warrant plea, you even gave the mobile number of one suspect, and now you failed to arrest him.”
Latif at the tribunal begged repeatedly for granting him bail considering his old age, and that he was not prepared for the trial and had no counsel to defend him. The accused said he had informed his family about the arrest with the help of police.
Father of five sons and two daughters, Latif said one of his sons came to Dhaka but he could not enter the tribunal premises since he had been barred at the entrance.
Hearing him, the tribunal said: “We cannot give you bail like this. There are some procedures. You need a lawyer to defend you.”
The tribunal then asked the prosecution to make sure that the accused could meet his son and inform them about the tribunal procedure to hire a counsel. “We cannot take any initiative as your counsel is not here yet,” the tribunal said and ordered the authorities concerned to send him to jail custody. He was later taken to the Dhaka Central Jail.
The tribunal’s investigators are now probing their alleged involvement in several incidents of crimes against humanity committed in Shakharikatthi of Bagerhat during the 1971 Liberation War.
They have already found some evidence including the conversion of at least 200 people. They may be charged for genocide, murder and torture.
According to the investigators, Siraj Master had been a key associate of razakar founder AKM Yusuf during the war in Shakharikatthi.
