Jamaat-e-Islami guru Ghulam Azam’s first defence witness deposition remained incomplete even on the seventh day at the stand.
Published : 09 Jan 2013, 10:34 AM
Former Jamaat chief Azam’s son Abdullahil Aaman Azmi first took the stand on Nov 12.
The tribunal had set a date for closing arguments after the defence failed to show up with the witness on two consecutive days citing general strike of the opposition of which Jamaat is a key ally.
The court had closed defence witness on Dec 10 but said it would allow further witnesses upon satisfactory explanation. The defence application was summarily granted on Tuesday even before the counsel explained the delay.
The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal – 1, set up to try crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, indicted Azam for five war crimes charges including incitement, complicity and conspiracy.
A former Brigadier of the Bangladesh Army, Azmi was in the midst of submitting documents as exhibits on behalf of his father. On Wednesday, the defence counsel said there were still a few more items to be exhibited on top of almost 250 already submitted.
Among them would be a few new items and a volume of illegible copies of newspaper reports and other documents.
Prosecutor Zead-Al-Malum was prompt to point out that the photocopies could hardly be read with which the court agreed followed by the defence.
Senior defence counsel Mizanul Islam said that the defence would supply better copies or provide type-written versions of the reports.
These he said would take long and prayed for an adjournment till Sunday.
The tribunal, still sitting without Chairman Justice A T M Fazle Kabir, reluctantly agreed to adjourn the matter after insisting that the defence counsel finish the deposition by Thursday.
Senior defence counsel Mizanul Islam said that it would be rather difficult for him to get all the documents ready and also cited some personal difficulty of the witness.
<b>Jamaat Guru in ICT-1</b>
On Dec 12, 2011, the prosecution brought a 52-point charter of charges against Azam and appealed for his arrest. Later, following the tribunal order, charges were re-arranged and presented to the tribunal on Jan 5 last year.
He was produced before the tribunal on Jan 11 and sent to jail the same day. Since that evening, the 89-year-old former Carmichael College Professor has been kept in the prison cell of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for better treatment considering his delicate health.
Ghulam Azam’s indictment hearing began on Feb 15, 2012 and the court charged him on May 13.
A former chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, arguably the largest Islamist organisation in the subcontinent, Azam is allegedly among the key people who pioneered anti-liberation efforts in 1971 colluding with the Pakistani military junta of that time.
He is widely perceived to have been among core group of right-wing supporters of the Pakistani Army, who came out strongly in support of a united Pakistan.
Ghulam Azam, then chief of Jamaat, was instrumental in setting up the infamous Peace Committee at the national level. The Razakars, an auxiliary force set up mainly to actively thwart the liberation forces, are said to have been mobilised through the Peace Committees across Bangladesh.
Among the most notorious vigilante militia were the Al Badr, whose membership is said to have been mainly dominated by the Jamaat's student wing called the Islami Chhatra Sangha at that time.
The Al Badr is alleged to have spearheaded execution of the intellectual elites of Bangladesh only days before the victory on Dec 16, 1971.
Azam also spoke in favour of Pakistan to the Middle Eastern countries during the war, according to the prosecution.
He stayed in London for seven years after 1971 and returned to Bangladesh in 1978 during BNP founder Ziaur Rahman's rule. Having led Jamaat for long, Azam retired from active politics in 1999.
His party remains a key ally of the main opposition BNP. Two Jamaat leaders, also behind bars for war crimes charges, have even served as ministers during the BNP's last tenure in government between 2001 and 2006, when Azam's party was part of the ruling coalition.
Azam was indicted on five charges including incitement, conspiracy and abetment.