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War Crimes Trial

Govt hopes to end it in time

Staff Correspondent
The finance minister's budget speech yesterday showed a beacon of hope amid growing doubts about completion of the much-awaited trial of the war criminals within the present government's tenure.
When the government set up the International Crimes Tribunal on March 25, 2010, appreciation came from different corners besides criticism for delay.
Since then apprehension surfaced whether this government would be able to complete the trial of the war criminals within its tenure. The government, however, set up the second tribunal in March this year to step up the process.
Against this backdrop, a formal hope came from Finance Minister AMA Muhith in his budget speech. "Hopefully, we will see the end of the trial within the tenure of the present government,” hesaid.
However, writer and journalist Shahriar Kabir, a leading researcher on war crimes, doesn't have much confidence on the hope of the finance minister.
"I consider it as a wishful thinking of our finance minister. We also want to be hopeful like him but can't, because the ground reality is different,” said Kabir.
Explaining the ground reality, Kabir said the BNP-Jamaat's opposition and propaganda against the trial and tribunal are external challenges for the government.
"But there are also some internal challenges such as lack of manpower in the tribunal, lack of security for witnesses, lack of skilled fulltime
prosecution, absence of research cell, archive, library and many other logistics," Kabir observed.
"The finance ministry has a role to remove incompleteness of the tribunal. Without addressing these challenges, it is not possible to be optimistic about completing the trial of the war criminals within this tenure," he continued.
"We, moreover, have to keep in mind that the tribunal is not the last step for completing the trial. There is provision of appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court after verdicts of the tribunals, so the appeals have to be disposed off within this tenure to complete the trial."
Rana Dasgupta, a prosecution lawyer for the war crimes cases, is partially optimistic.
"If the trial proceedings continue at the current pace, we expect judgement in some of the cases, but it may not be for all cases from the tribunals as well as from the Appellate Division within the tenure of the present government," said Dasgupta.
Tajul Islam, a leading defence counsel of the accused Jamaat leaders, termed the finance minister's
comment "intervention to the trial process" and "beyondhis jurisdiction".
"Even we [those are involved in the trial process] cannot predict the completion of the trial. How can he say that the trial would be completed within the tenure of this government?" Tajul asked.
As per the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, a convict or the government will have the right of appeal to the Appellate Division against the verdict within sixty days from the date of delivering judgment.
The prosecution have so far accused eight people of committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Of them, six have already been indicted by the two tribunals and the trial has started against Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee and BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
The second tribunal has fixed June 11 and June 21 for passing the order on framing charges against former BNP lawmaker Abdul Alim and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed respectively.