Decision on cognisance of war crimes charges against Jatiya Party leader Sakhawat on Sep 8

International Crimes Tribunal-1 will decide on Sept 8 whether or not to try Jatiya Party leader Sakhawat Hossain and 11 others on five counts of war crimes charges pressed by its prosecution.

The first tribunal led by Justice Enayetur Rahim set the date on Sunday after hearing arguments by prosecutor Zead Al Malum and defence counsel Sattar Pahlawan. 

Razia Sultana Chaman, another of the war crimes tribunal’s prosecutors, told bdnews24.com the 12 were accused on one count of rape, two counts of abduction and murder, and another two for abduction, detention, torture and arson. 

The other accused are Md Billal Hossain Biswas, Md Akram Hossain, Azihar Morol, Md Ibrahim Hossain, Sheikh Md Majibur Rahman, MA Aziz Sardar, Abdul Aziz Sardar, Kazi Ohidul Islam, Md Lutfor Morhol, Md Abdul Khaleque and Mashiur Rahman. 

The tribunal’s team started investigating the dozen on Feb 4, 2012 and submitted their findings on June 18. 

She added Sakhawat, Billal and Azihar were already in prison. 

Sakhawat Hossain, currently the religious affairs secretary of Jatiya Party, was once a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami. 

He joined the BNP after becoming MP from Jamaat and lost in 1996 general elections. He ran as an independent in 2001 after failing to win nomination from the BNP and was expelled.

He later joined Liberal Democratic Party headed by Oli Ahmed in 2006 only to shift allegiance to People's Democratic Party during emergency rule.

Finally, he joined Jatiya Party after the embargo on indoor politics was lifted in 2008. 

In the last parliamentary elections, he contested for the Jessore constituency with endorsement from Jatiya Party.