Detained Jamaat leaders appeal for foreign lawyers
Counsels for five detained leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami have appealed to the Bangladesh Bar Council to allow three British legal experts to defend their clients from charges of war crimes during the Liberation War.
The Bangladesh Bar Council, which has the authority to give licence to lawyers of the country for practising law, has yet to give its decision.
Four counsels including Advocate M Tajul Islam on Sunday submitted their application to the Bar Council for permission to engage the three foreign lawyers.
Tajul said the British lawyers are Steven Kay QC, Toby Cadman and John Cammegh.
Bar Council Vice-Chairman Abdul Baset Majumder told The Daily Star he will soon call a meeting to take a decision in this regard.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who is the ex-officio chairman of Bar Council, however, said there is no law or rule for Bangladesh Bar Council to permit any foreign lawyer, who does not have its enrolment certificate, to conduct a case at a Bangladesh court.
Tajul Islam said Steven was appointed as the court-assigned defence counsel for former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic who had faced charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the International Criminal Court in The Hague of the Netherlands. Toby was a prosecution lawyer in the Bosnia Tribunal for war crimes and John was a defence counsel in the Special Court of Sierra Leone for international crimes including war crimes committed during the civil war (1991-2001) of the country, Tajul added.
The five detained Jamaat leaders are Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojahid, senior assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla, and nayeb-e-ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments