War Crimes Trial
Bar council rejects plea for foreign lawyers
Bangladesh Bar Council yesterday rejected an application seeking permission for three foreign lawyers to defend the five Jamaat-e-Islami leaders detained in connection with crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
Counsels of the Jamaat leaders on July 17 submitted the application to the Bar Council which has the authority to issue licences to those who have bar council enrolment certificates. The licence is necessary to conduct cases before any Bangladeshi court.
The Bar Council at a meeting yesterday rejected the application.
ZI Khan Panna, executive member of Bar Council, told The Daily Star that the council is not empowered to permit anyone to represent a case if he or she does not have the enrolment certificate.
The British lawyers named in the application are Steven Kay QC, Toby Cadman and John Cammegh.
The Jamaat leaders are Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojaheed, senior assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla, and Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
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