Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee's counsel virtually puts the war crimes tribunal to sleep with his tedious questioning when judge AKM Zaheer Ahmed asked him when he would come to the point.
Mizanul Islam began the cross examination of the 61-year-old freedom fighter Ruhul Alam Nabin on Sunday, after the prosecution brought charges of crimes against humanity against another Jamaat leader, Abdul Quader Mollah.
The International Crimes Tribunal ruled that it would consider taking those charges into cognisance on Dec 28. The tribunal fixed the same date for taking cognisance in the case of three other Jamaat leaders — party's chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, his number two and party secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, and assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.
Mizanul Islam started the cross examination and soon got into a list of dozens of people asking if the witness knew them, one by one. After the better part of an hour, he had managed to put to sleep a large section of the courtroom, including the bench officers sitting in front of the judges facing the court.
The first witness, sitting by the prosecution's side was awakened by an inspector of the investigation agency, some of the prosecutors, as a section of the defence team, some observers and a number of journalists had their heads bobbing up and down as they drifted in and out of sleep.
Accused, Jamaat-e-Islami's executive council member, Sayedee, facing 20 counts of crimes against humanity including murder, rape, loot and arson, sat in the dock with arms folded, leaning on an armrest of his chair, and was fast asleep.
Mizanul Islam replied to the judge's query saying there were just about 15 or 20 more names to go through and then he would come to the point.
Zaheer Ahmed told him, "The way you are going, you will have covered the entire Pirojpur district by the time you are done."
He also said, "And it is really difficult to follow because you are all over the place, senior." Zaheer addresses senior counsellors as just 'senior'.
The judge said the defence counsel did not follow any certain pattern in his listing the names since he was asking about a woman of a Hindu neighbourhood in Parerhat of Pirojpur, and move on to another man of the Pirojpur town and a few names down the line he would return to the same village and ask about that same woman's nephew.
After another 10 minutes, tribunal chairman justice Nizamul Huq addressed the counsellor and said, "At this point, there must be some limit to your cross examination."
Soon afterwards, the defence counsellor made his point that all those that the witness knew belonged to the Awami League and those he said he had not known to the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Shortly afterwards, Mizanul Islam handed over the questioning to his colleague Mohammed Kafil Uddin Chowdhury who was still cross examining Nabin when the court adjourned for the day.
Sayedee is the first to face prosecution for his alleged war crimes against humanity.
The prosecution on Sept 4 proposed 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.
BNP's standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also a lawmaker, has also 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.
Mizanul Islam began the cross examination of the 61-year-old freedom fighter Ruhul Alam Nabin on Sunday, after the prosecution brought charges of crimes against humanity against another Jamaat leader, Abdul Quader Mollah.
The International Crimes Tribunal ruled that it would consider taking those charges into cognisance on Dec 28. The tribunal fixed the same date for taking cognisance in the case of three other Jamaat leaders — party's chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, his number two and party secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, and assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.
Mizanul Islam started the cross examination and soon got into a list of dozens of people asking if the witness knew them, one by one. After the better part of an hour, he had managed to put to sleep a large section of the courtroom, including the bench officers sitting in front of the judges facing the court.
The first witness, sitting by the prosecution's side was awakened by an inspector of the investigation agency, some of the prosecutors, as a section of the defence team, some observers and a number of journalists had their heads bobbing up and down as they drifted in and out of sleep.
Accused, Jamaat-e-Islami's executive council member, Sayedee, facing 20 counts of crimes against humanity including murder, rape, loot and arson, sat in the dock with arms folded, leaning on an armrest of his chair, and was fast asleep.
Mizanul Islam replied to the judge's query saying there were just about 15 or 20 more names to go through and then he would come to the point.
Zaheer Ahmed told him, "The way you are going, you will have covered the entire Pirojpur district by the time you are done."
He also said, "And it is really difficult to follow because you are all over the place, senior." Zaheer addresses senior counsellors as just 'senior'.
The judge said the defence counsel did not follow any certain pattern in his listing the names since he was asking about a woman of a Hindu neighbourhood in Parerhat of Pirojpur, and move on to another man of the Pirojpur town and a few names down the line he would return to the same village and ask about that same woman's nephew.
After another 10 minutes, tribunal chairman justice Nizamul Huq addressed the counsellor and said, "At this point, there must be some limit to your cross examination."
Soon afterwards, the defence counsellor made his point that all those that the witness knew belonged to the Awami League and those he said he had not known to the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Shortly afterwards, Mizanul Islam handed over the questioning to his colleague Mohammed Kafil Uddin Chowdhury who was still cross examining Nabin when the court adjourned for the day.
Sayedee is the first to face prosecution for his alleged war crimes against humanity.
The prosecution on Sept 4 proposed 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.
BNP's standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also a lawmaker, has also 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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment