BANGLADESH

The war crimes tribunal on Thursday rejected the second bail petition for Jamaat-e-Islami guru Ghulam Azam facing charges of crimes against humanity.

The International Crimes Tribunal, set up to try crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, said that it found no documents substantiating the former Jamaat-e-Islami chief's claim of deteriorating health.

Justice Nizamul Huq, chairman of the tribunal, said in his order that charges had already been taken into cognisance and the court was currently in the middle of hearing formal charges while stated that the prisoner had been in custody since Jan 11, 2012, which was not unreasonably long.

There were several other items that the court dealt with on Thursday.

In the case against Jamaat executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee where the court was expected to hear further witness testimonies, the tribunal adjourned the proceedings till March 4 as the prosecution could not produce witnesses on Thursday and it failed to guarantee presenting any further witnesses next week.

The tribunal also adjourned the scheduled indictment hearing of Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed till March 11, as defence counsel Munshi Ahsan Kabir pleaded that he had not even been able to read the documents served upon him on Feb8, which were in total almost 7,000 pages.

In response to petition brought by the defence against Bengali daily Janakantha, the tribunal chairman has asked the reporter concerned to be present at the court on Sunday at 10:30 for further proceedings on the matter.