War Crimes Trial
Order on Alim's indictment review petition June 28
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday fixed June 28 to pass an order on a petition of former BNP lawmaker Abdul Alim seeking review of the indictment order for his alleged involvement with crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. The tribunal fixed the date after the prosecution and defence counsels completed their arguments over the petition. The tribunal, on June 11, framed 17 specific charges against Alim which include genocide, murder of Bangalee civilians, and burying people alive during the Liberation War. That day the tribunal also fixed July 9 to record the opening statement of the prosecution and a prosecution witness's statement. Afterwards, Alim's counsels filed the petition on June 20. One of the defence counsels, Munshi Ahsan Kabir, yesterday said the prosecution, in their formal charge, mentioned Alim as the chairman of Joypurhat Peace Committee and a Razakar commander. But the tribunal framed the charges mentioning Alim as a “local influential leader of Razakar Bahini as well as the chairman of a local peace committee,” he said. “Local influential leader” and “local peace committee” makes the allegations “unspecific” and it is difficult to prepare the defence on the basis of “unspecific allegations”. Therefore, the order should be reviewed, otherwise the accused would be prejudiced, said Munshi. In reply, prosecutor Rana Dasgupta said the tribunal framed the charges not only on the basis of the formal charges but also on the basis of witnesses' statements and the investigation report. Alim, who has been arrested on March 27 last year and on conditional bail since March 31 last year, appeared before the court yesterday.
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