Fix number of defence witnesses to be allowed
AK Khandker urges ICT judges
Sector Commanders Forum Chairman Air Vice Marshal (retd) AK Khandker yesterday urged the International Crimes Tribunals judges to fix the number of defence witnesses to be taken into cognisance during the trial.
His call came against the backdrop of the submission of the names of 15,000 defence witnesses in four cases against four top Jamaat leaders recently.
Khandker, also the planning minister, said, “In parliament, we are directed to complete our speech within a specific period. Similarly, the judges can issue a direction on the number of witness whose depositions it would take into cognisance.”
The lawmaker was addressing an Iftar party organised by Sector Commanders Forum-Liberation War '71 in the capital's Shaheen Hall auditorium. “If the depositions of thousands of witnesses are taken into cognisance, the trial will be prolonged,” he said, adding that the provision providing war crimes convicts the opportunity to appeal against their conviction should be cancelled.
“I will urge the government, especially the law minister, to scrap this provision because it will cause the trial's completion to take double the time,” he said. “The war criminals are spending crores of taka to spread propaganda against the trial across the world. But we could not do anything against this,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Prof Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman, Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, State Minister for Home Shamsul Hoque Tuku, University Grants Commission Chairman Prof Dr AK Azad Chowdhury, Workers' Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon and Communist Party of Bangladesh General Secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim attended the function.
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