A war crimes tribunal is reading out the verdict in the war crimes case against alleged al-Badr leader ATM Azharul Islam for his alleged crimes against humanity in 1971 Liberation War.
International Crimes Tribunal 1 Chairman Justice Enayetur Rahim started reading the summary of 158-page verdict around 11:15am on Tuesday.
Azhar, the assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami was taken to the tribunal from the central jail around 8:55am.
Azhar is facing six charges of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
An alleged al-Badr commander of Rangpur, Azhar was the former president of the Rangpur district unit Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of the Jamaat.
Son of late Nazir Hossain and Ramicha Khatun of Batasan Lohanipara in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur, Azhar was a student of class XI at the Rangpur Carmichael College during the war.
Police arrested him on August 22, 2012 from his Moghbazar house in the capital after the tribunal had issued an arrest warrant against him.
The tribunal indicted him on November 12 last year.
A total of 19 witnesses testified against the accused. Of them, the prosecution declared their seventh witness hostile. The defence produced a relative of Azhar to testify in his favour.
After recording the closing arguments of both prosecution and defence, the tribunal on September 18 kept the case for a verdict.
During the arguments, the prosecution sought death penalty for the offences Azhar had committed including the Jharuar Beel massacre of April 17, 1971 when 1,200 unarmed people had been killed.
