The International Crimes Tribunal 2 has fixed Sunday for pronouncing judgement in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami Central Executive Committee member Mir Kashem Ali, also a key financier of the party.
Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah, senior member of the two-member tribunal, set the date yesterday in a short order, nearly six months after the trial ended. The tribunal chairman is on leave.
It also directed the jail authorities to produce the 62-year-old accused by 10am on that day. After an oral plea by the prosecution, the tribunal directed the registrar to issue a production warrant in this regard.
The prosecution sought for death for Mir Kashem terming him “Bangalee Khan” of 1971 when he had been the Chittagong district unit chief of al-Badr, a vigilante group of Jamaat. They claimed that all the charges against the “man eater of ‘71” had been proved beyond reasonable doubt through strong witnesses and evidence.
He faces 14 charges of crimes against humanity committed during the war. The prosecution contested in 12 out of the 14 charges. Of those, two are for killings and the rest are for abetting and facilitation of abduction, confinement and torture.
The accused was indicted also for setting houses on fire, looting and other inhuman acts in Chittagong region during the war. He also faces command responsibility, the responsibility of a superior for actions committed by his subordinates in al-Badr Bahini he had created.
The tribunal on May 4 kept the day of the verdict on CAV (a Latin legal term that means case awaits verdict) as the defence concluded their part of closing arguments, followed by the prosecution with their rebuttal.
Mir Kashem was indicted by the tribunal 1 on September 5 last year. Later the trial was shifted to the tribunal 2 for quick disposal. As many as 24 prosecution witnesses testified against the notorious collaborator of 1971.
Even though the tribunal ended the trial within a short time, it took much time to fixed the verdict date. The verdict in former Jatiya Party lawmaker Syed Mohammad Qaisar case is pending with the same tribunal.
Charges against Kashem, also the chairman of Diganta Media Corporation that runs Diganta TV (operation now suspended) and the Daily Naya Diganta, were taken into cognisance on May 26 last year.
Police arrested him on June 17 last year from the office of the daily Naya Diganta in the capital hours after the tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest. He is also the treasurer of Jamaat.
According to the prosecution, Mir Kashem, who is originally from Munshidangi Sutalori under Harirampur in Manikganj, joined Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat, in 1967 while studying at Chittagong Collegiate School. He later became its Chittagong City unit general secretary.
Mir Kashem played an important role in forming al-Badr Bahini, a notorious auxiliary force of the Pakistani occupation army that is blamed for systematic killing of freedom fighters and intellectuals, in Chittagong.
As per the charges, he had set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city including Daleem Hotel in Andorkilla, where pro-liberation people were handed down punishment. Other allegations against him include involvement in mass killings in Asadnagar and Panchlaish areas.
Mir Kashem in collaboration with the Pakistani occupation forces opened several torture cells in the city including Dost Mohammad Panjabi building and Salma Manjil where M Omar-ul-Islam and Lutfar Rahman Faruk among others were tortured following abduction.
He is accused of abducting six persons including Jasim and torturing them in confinement from the day of Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971 to November 28, subsequently killing them and concealing their bodies.
The Jamaat leader is also charged for the abduction of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Tuntu Sen and Ranjit Das alias Latu and torturing them in confinement, looting and setting their houses on fire, later killing Ranjit and Tuntu in November 1971.
Most of the crimes took place between November and December of 1971.
The defence, however, claims that Kashem was not in Chittagong when the crimes took place.
During the rebuttal, 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,” she said.
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.
According to a defence petition, Kashem is the member secretary of Islami Bank Foundation, an organisation that oversees all the projects of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and profits generated by it; chairman of Keari Ltd, a real estate and tourism company; founding trustee and also a member responsible for administration of the Ibn Sina Trust and director (marketing) of Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries;
The Jamaat leader is also the member secretary of Fouad Al-Khateeb Charity Foundation.
On April 28 last year, then law minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament that Jamaat had signed an agreement with a US lobbyist firm to make the trial of war criminals “controversial.” He said Mir Kashem had paid $25m for this purpose while claiming that the government had copies of the receipts and the agreement.
