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Mueen Uddin, Ashrafuzzaman

Verdict any day

Staff Correspondent
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 will deliver any day the verdict in war crimes case against alleged Al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan.
The prosecution and the defence yesterday completed their closing arguments and the case has been shelved for the verdict.
"We are keeping the case as a CAV [Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term that means the verdict could be delivered any time] and hope to deliver the verdict as soon as possible," said Justice Obaidul Hassan, chairman of the International Crimes
Tribunal-2, yesterday.
Mueen and Ashraf, who are now on the
run, are facing 11 charges for allegedly killing nine Dhaka University teachers, six
FROM PAGE 1 eminent journalists and three physicians in the last week of the nine-month Liberation War in 1971.
This is the second war crimes case in which the trial has been conducted in absentia, as the tribunal's attempts to have the accused in the courtroom failed.
Mueen is now living in London while Ashraf in New York.
The first war crimes case conducted in absentia was against expelled Jamaat-e-Islami member Abul Kalam Azad. He has been awarded the capital punishment.
Yesterday, prosecutor Sahidur Rahman gave brief replies to the defence arguments before the three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hassan with members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Shahinur Islam had kept the case waiting for judgment.
Before Sahidur's submis-sion, state-appointed defence counsels Abdus Shukur Khan and Salma Hai Tuny had completed their arguments and sought acquittal of their client claiming that the prosecution "failed to prove" any of the charges.
On September 25, prosecutor Syed Haider Ali sought death penalty for Mueen and Ashraf, as what he said the duo "deserved capital punishment for the crimes they had committed (during the Liberation War]. ”
The charges against the duo are related to abducting and killing of 18 intellectuals. The victims were: Dhaka University teachers Prof Mofazzal Haider Choudhury, Prof Munier Chowdhury, ProfGiasuddin Ahmed, Prof Sirajul Haque Khan, Dr Abul Khayer, Dr Faizul Mohiuddin, Prof Rashidul Hasan, Prof Anwar Pasha, Prof Santosh Chandra Bhattacharyya, journalists Serajuddin Hossain, Syed Najmul Haque, ANM Golam Mostafa, Nizam Uddin
Ahmed, Selina Pervin, Shahidullah Kaiser, and physicians Fazle Rabbee, Alim Chaudhury and Mohammad Martuza.
The International Crimes Tribubal-1 and 2 holding war crimes trials have so far delivered judgment in six cases. The Tribunal-1 is set to deliver the verdict in the case against BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury today.
The Tribunal-2 also kept the case against another BNP leader Abdul Alim waiting for judgment on September 22.
The court took 25 days to deliver the verdict in Azad's case after the proceedings had been completed and 41 days, the highest so far, in Mojaheed'scase.
If convicted Mueen and Ashraf could get the death penalty. The International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 only allows a convict to appeal to the Appellate Division of Supreme Court against conviction and sentence within 30 days of the date of the verdict delivery.
BACKGROUNDS OF
MUEEN AND ASHRAF
Mueen, son of Delwar Hossain Chowdhury and Diljan Begum of Chandpur village in Dagonbhuiyan upazila of Feni district, was a student of Dhaka University (Bangla department) until the independence, according to the prosecution.
He was a staff reporter of daily Purbadesh and a central leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat-e-lslami, said the prosecution.
During the Liberation War, Mueen as the operation-in-charge of Al-Badr intellectual killing mission, was directly involved in the killings of the brightest children of the soil to crip-ple the soon-to-be-independent Bangladesh, alleged the prosecution.
After the war, he went to Pakistan and then to London where he has been the chairman of Tottenham
Mosque, vice-chairman of National Health Service, and a director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the National Health Service, they said.
Ashraf alias Naeb Ali Khan, son of Ajahar Ali Khan and Roimunnesa of Chhotovatara village under Muksudpur upazila of Gopalganj district, was enrolled in Islamic studies of Dhaka University and obtained his Bachelor in Arts degree in 1970. He was a central leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha, according to the prosecution.
They said, during the war, Ashraf, who was also a member of Al-Badr high command, acted as the chief executor of the intellectual killing mission.
He had also served as the commander of Gazi Salahuddin Company of Al-Badr and directly took part in the planned killing, they alleged.
He was now in New York and had been serving as a member of Islami Circle of North America, according to the prosecution.
The investigation agency, designated to the prove war crimes, started to probe the alleged crimes of the duo on September 25, 2011 and submitted its report to the prosecution on October 9, 2012.
On April 25 this year, the prosecution pressed 16 charges of war crimes against the accused. The tribunal on May 27 decided to hold the trial in absentia and appointed two defence counsels for them. On June 25, the court framed 11 charges against them.
The prosecution produced 25 witnesses, including two investigation officers in the case, while the defence could not produce any as they “didn't get cooperation from the accused family members and relatives.”
The prosecution and the defence placed their argu-ments in between September 23 and yesterday.