Justice M Enayetur Rahim, the High Court judge who cancelled Jamaat-e-Islami’s registration, will head Bangladesh’s first war crimes tribunal.
Published : 23 Feb 2014, 01:42 PM
The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliament Affairs issued a circular, making his appointment as Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, on Sunday.
Justice Rahim's salary and other benefits will be in line with the pay structure of the High Court Division, the government order said.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 was set up in 2010 to try crimes against humanity committed during 1971 Liberation War.
The court’s work had stopped after its former Chairman, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, retired on Dec 31 last year.
It is currently dealing with five cases including the one of Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, whose verdict is in line.
Nizami is already facing death sentence in the 2004 Chittagong arms haul cases.
Justice Rahim, appointed an additional judge to the High Court during the Awami League government's previous term on June 30, 2009, was made permanent on June 6, 2011.
He was heading a three-strong High Court bench on the day of his appointment to the tribunal.
In August last year, the High Court had cancelled the registration of the Jamaat as a political party.
Justice Rahim, along with two other judges of the bench, Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque, had announced the verdict.
Born on Aug 11 in 1960, Justice Rahim did his Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism from Dhaka University.
Later, he obtained the LLB degree from the same university.
He became a High Court lawyer in 1989.
Rahim was listed as an Appellate Division lawyer in 2002 and was elected as Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association in 2005.
The government had appointed him as an additional attorney general on Jan 29, 2009, while he was an elected member of the Bangladesh Bar Council.