Dhaka, Jan 10 (bdnews24.com) — Pirojpur MP AKMA Awal finished his deposition in a case against Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee at the war crimes tribunal on Tuesday.
The International Crimes Tribunal, set up to try crimes against humanity, indicted Jamaat-e-Islami executive council member on 20 counts of crimes against humanity on Oct 3.
Sayedee's defence strongly reiterated their plea to delay the cross-examination by one day citing lack of preparations. But the tribunal was still of the view that witness cross-examination of this prosecution witness, 12th to be specific, should begin after lunch.
The tribunal took an early lunch recess, almost half an hour in advance to allow the defence some time to prepare. It is set to resume at 2pm.
Awal, alias Saidur Rahman, deposed about events that he had heard through 'sources' that in Sayedee's native Parerhat Union under Pirojpur and the surrounding areas of Parerhat the accused was alleged to have committed crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
On Monday, as the day's proceedings came to a close around 4:45pm, almost 45 minutes past its normal closing hour, the prosecution had notified the court that the MP from Pirojpur would take the stand today breaking away from the sequence of witnesses. This elicited a strong objection from the defence.
The defence held that while it was prepared to handle the next witness mentioned in the prosecution's list, it needed more time to cross-examine Awal, who the defence considers as an architect behind the case especially since the accused Sayedee is a political rival in the area.
Lawyer M Tajul Islam told the court that it would not be fair upon the defence and said that the prosecution was intentionally deviating from the witness sequence to put the defence in an awkward position.
Tajul told the court that the MP, in the view of the defence team, was a star witness and therefore the defence would need much more time to prepare. "But the prosecution is resorting to such ploys deliberately. We seek the protection of this court to meet the ends of justice."
Tribunal chairman Nizamul Huq told him that he considered a day's notice was sufficient for the defence to prepare. "Star or non-star, we consider each person to be just a witness."
When Tajul said that the prosecution could not do that without any explanation, Huq pointed out that they were not bound by law to do so. The tribunal chairman told him that the defence should be prepared for any witness on the list on any day.
Defence counsellor Mizanul Islam stepped in and managed to secure a slight concession from the tribunal chairman.
Islam told the tribunal that while it was true defence should have been prepared for every witness and while it is also true that the prosecution did not need to provide an explanation about deviating from their sequence of witness list, it 'is a matter of practicality'.
"I am not saying that the prosecution is violating the law or that they cannot do it. But it is not practicable for the defence to be prepared for every witness at any given point of time," said Islam.
The counsellor further said that he was afraid that it was because of their lack of preparation that their client might be denied justice which would be unfortunate. Mizanul Islam also pointed out to the court, that it was clear from their suggestion that the Pirojpur MP was behind the case in the first place and thus warranted rigorous cross examination.
"All I am asking is that the court defers the deposition by just one day."
Mizanul Islam's tempered voice and reason appeared to have worked. The tribunal chief, after a quick word with his collegue AKM Zaheer Ahmed, said that he would allow the deposition to proceed on Tuesday followed by cross-examination. "However, if I see that you are facing difficulties in conducting the cross-examination then I will genuinely recommend that you take time for preparation."
Mizanul Islam still wanted the hearing to be postponed saying that there a number of things that had come to the attention of the defence and required thorough preparation.
However, Justice Nizamul Huq held to his initial position and said that this was a politician after all and they were naturally busy. Since he has become available, he would allow the deposition and if he saw that the defence were facing genuine hurdles they would reconsider the matter.
Sayedee's is the first case to proceed to the trial at the tribunal. The prosecution on September 4 proposed the framing of charges against Sayedee on 31 counts for crimes against humanity and genocide in ICT Case-1/2011. The tribunal indicted Sayedee on 20 counts on Oct 3.
The tribunal also ordered Jamaat guru, and a former party chief Ghulam Azam, on Monday to appear before it on Wednesday. However, there have no dates for further proceedings in the case against Azam.
Apart from Sayedee, Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla, and Bangladesh Nationalist Party's standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also a lawmaker, have been detained, along with others, on charges of committing war crimes.
The tribunal, however, on March 31 granted conditional bail to former BNP MP and minister Abdul Alim.
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