Careless investigation saved Sayedee from hanging, says AG

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam has faulted the investigators of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for the Supreme Court verdict that has reduced war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s death sentence.

Apart from pointing out the faults in the investigation, the top law officer of the state who had argued in the war crimes case has also questioned the competence of the prosecutors.

Bangladesh's highest appeals court on Wednesday watered down the death sentence, given by the war crimes tribunal, of top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sayedee to ‘imprisonment until death’.

Expressing frustration, the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee had also openly blamed the prosecution's failure to present facts and evidence for the reduced sentence.

In his immediate reaction, committee convener MA Hassan told bdnews24.com despite having enough evidence, the prosecution’s presentation in court in Sayedee's case was poor.

At a talk-show on Wednesday night on private Ekattor TV, Mahbubey Alam blamed the ICT investigators' negligence.

He also brought up their failure in collecting documents of the FIR over the murder of Ibrahim Kutti filed by his wife.

He said, "Investigators did not find the documents of the FIR filed by Ibrahim Kutti's wife."

"The FIR of (Kutti’s wife) that Sayedee's lawyer presented in court did not have Sayedee's name. But the tribunal's investigation did not find it. They don't even know whether there are any ongoing cases against Sayedee based on those documents or if his name had come up later."

Wednesday's verdict reduced the Jamaat number two's death sentence for Kutti’s murder to imprisonment for 12 years.

Ekattor TV also spoke to ICT investigation agency's coordinator Mohammad Sanaul Haque following the attorney general's remarks.

Haque said both them and the attorney general himself had failed to collect the case documents.

"He (Alam) had gone to Barisal, Pirojpur to find those documents, he didn't get them, right? Police officials of those districts also said that they did not find such documents."

In his response, Attorney General Alam said, "I think this document existed. We couldn't find it maybe because someone hid it. This is completely the result of a lack in coordination."

After the verdict, Chief Coordinator of the ICT prosecution's investigation arm Abdul Hannan had told reporters, "We also hoped that Sayedee's death sentence will hold. But that didn't happen. There's nothing to say about the Supreme Court's verdict."

But Sanaul Haque was not ready to concede so easily. "The prosecutors were supposed to point out any lacking when the investigating team submitted its report to the tribunal. And now we are being blamed after the verdict."

"We always asked them (prosecutors) to tell us if we had been negligent in anyway."

At this point, the attorney general questioned the skills of the prosecutors as well as their physical fitness. He also brought to the fore the bickering between prosecutors.

Alam, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said, "You would be shocked if you heard about some incidents that occurred at the tribunal. An individual without any experience of handling even one criminal case was appointed as one of the prosecutors."

"Some days ago one of the tribunal judges had told a lawyer to get out of the courtroom because he was talking simply nonsense."

He blamed former law minister Shafique Ahmed for appointing such 'unqualified' prosecutors at as important a place as the war crimes tribunal.

Law Minister Anisul Huq did not directly blame the prosecution for the verdict that let Sayedee get away with lifetime in jail, but called for a change in the prosecution team.

Asked whether the prosecution had any weaknesses leading to the watered-down verdict, he told reporters earlier in the day, “I cannot blame anyone before seeing a full copy of the appeal verdict. But the prosecution team is in a bad shape and should be overhauled.”

Huq, who took over the ministry only nine months ago, is also familiar with the dispute between prosecutors. He also had to intervene recently to resolve the issues.

“There are some open cases in the tribunal, some verdicts are pending. I did not want to bring any change to ensure that the team did not face any problem. But now we will take a decision about this very soon,” he said.

Attorney General Alam, while speaking at the talk-show, however, brushed away Ganajagaran Mancha's allegation that the government had colluded with Jamaat to help Sayedee avert the death penalty.

War Crimes Fact Finding Committee Convener Hassan has warned the government over the matter.

“The failure to present necessary documents, lack of witness protection and the rumour of collusion has created a wrong perception among the people. And this is never good,” he said.

UK-based International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF) has also expressed disappointment over Sayedee's death sentence getting reduced.

It has demanded amendment of Article 49 of the Constitution which contains the provision of Presidential “prerogative of mercy”.