Bangladesh - WAR CRIMES TRIAL - Nizami at tribunal

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Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami has been taken to the tribunal, which is set to deliver the long-awaited verdict in the war crimes cases against him today, more than four months after the deferment of the judgment in June.

Security has been beefed up in and around the court premises to ward off violence centring the pronouncement of the verdict. Members of law enforcing agencies including police and Rapid Action Battalion have taken position at all the entries of the tribunal and on the rooftop of the adjacent buildings.

Transport movement remains halted from Doel Chattar to High Court Mazar since morning ahead of the verdict.

To ward off violence centring the pronouncement of the verdict, authorities yesterday deployed paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at different parts of the country including the capital.

Earlier, Nizami entered the court premises around 9:20am. He is expected to be produced before the court around 10:30am.

The 71-year-old is facing 16 war crimes charges, including his role in eliminating the Bangalee intelligentsia just before Bangladesh's victory on December 16 in the 1971 Liberation War.

After a 22-month trial proceedings, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 led by its Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim yesterday fixed today to pronounce the verdict.

The judgment is going to be delivered nearly a year after the completion of the trial proceedings, which went through different hurdles, including tribunal reconstitution, rehearing of closing arguments and deferment of the verdict.

Nizami, Jamaat Ameer since November 2000, was shifted from Kashimpur jail to Dhaka Central Jail around 8:00pm yesterday. There, jail doctors conducted a health check-up and found him sound, Farman Ali, senior jail super of Dhaka jail, told The Daily Star last night.

Nizami, president of the then Jamaat-e-Islami student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha that turned into Pakistan army's auxiliary force Al-Badr during the Liberation War, was arrested on June 29, 2010, in a criminal case and later shown arrest in war crimes cases.

The ICT-1 framed 16 charges against Nizami on May 28, 2012. According to the charges, Nizami had conspired with the Pakistani army, planned and incited crimes; was complicit in murders, rapes, looting and destruction of property; and was responsible for commissioning of internationally recognised wartime crimes in 1971.

But, it took around one and a half years for the completion of the trial, thanks to the lack of preparation of the prosecution and a range of dilatory tactics of the defence.

The tribunal first kept the case awaiting verdict on November 13 last year. But the proceeding faced further delay when tribunal's chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir went on retirement without delivering the judgment. His successor reheard the closing arguments and kept the verdict waiting again on March 24.

The tribunal could not deliver verdict on June 24 due to Nizami's sudden “illness” forcing the court to keep it waiting again.

However, Nizami has already been given death penalty in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case in January this year.

The Jamaat chief played a key role in forming the four-party alliance ahead of the 2001 election and led his party, which fought tooth and nail against the birth of Bangladesh, to taste state power along with their key ally the BNP.

He and Jamaat's second man Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, who was convicted in war crimes last year, became members of Khaleda Zia's cabinet, amid protests from the country's pro-liberation minds.

Five top Jamaat leaders have already been punished for their 1971 crimes and three other top leaders are being tried in two war crimes tribunals.