The tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, passed the order after taking into cognizance six types of crimes against humanity allegedly, committed during the 1971 Liberation War by the Jamaat leader.
The court also ordered the prosecution to pass all the case documents to the defence within Aug 18.
The prosecution had brought the six charges against Azharul including murder, genocide, abduction, torture and rape.
Earlier, the tribunal’s war crimes investigators submitted their investigation report on Azharul to the prosecution on June 8.
The prosecution team said at the briefing that the charges include genocide of 1,225 people, murder of four, abduction of 17, one rape, abduction and torture of 12 and setting fire and looting hundreds of houses.
All of these crimes took place in Rangpur region.
The charges said Azharul Islam was a student of Rangpur’s Carmichael College during the 1971 Liberation War.
He was the president of the Rangpur unit of Jamaat-e-Islami’s erstwhile student organisation Islami Chhatra Shangha (ICS) and the leader of the Al-Badr forces in the district.
He was directly involved in the crimes against humanity as he planned, conspired and executed them with the Pakistani Army.
One of the key organisers of the Liberation War and NAP (Bhashani) leader AY Mahfuz Ali, an income tax lawyer by profession, was abducted and tortured along with 10 others in between Mar 24 and Mar 27 in 1971.
They were taken to Dakhiganj crematorium grounds on Apr 3 and killed, an assassination in which Azharul was involved, the charges said.
The prosecution also alleged that the Jamaat Assistant Secretary General was implicated in killing 15 unarmed people and in looting and arson incidents at Rangpur’s Badarganj on Apr 16.
The investigation against ATM Azharul Islam had begun on Apr 15 last year. Investigators interviewed over 60 people during that time, but named 27 of them as witnesses.
The Jamaat leader was arrested on Aug 22 last year from his Moghbazar residence. Since then, he has been behind the bars.
