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Rift intensifies in war crimes prosecution

Preparations for case against Jamaat stalled

TUHIN SHUBHRA ADHIKARY and MAHBUBUR RAHMAN KHAN
The escalating power struggle within the prosecution team of the international crimes tribunal has now made uncertain the filing of the war crimes case against the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Since April 30, there has been a chief prosecutor and an acting chief prosecutor of the team.
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Acting chief prosecutor Syed Haider Ali had a notice issued asking the prosecutors of the case to give him the probe report and other documents, apparently ignoring the fact that Chief Prosecutor Ghulam Arief Tipoo had joined work after medical leave.
The prosecutors, who were assigned to the Jamaat case, declined to give the documents to the "acting chief". However, the seven-member prosecution team dealing with the case stopped working yesterday after receiving the notice.
Asked why he is still holding on to the office of acting chief prosecutor when the chief prosecutor has joined work, Haider said, "The government will determine the matter but the government is yet to withdraw me |from my current post]."
Haider, who was appointed as acting chief prosecution on April 13 in absence of Tipoo, told The Daily Star that he asked for the documents to oversee the work progress and as the acting boss he could do so.
"I didn't hinder their [assigned prosecutors) work," said Haider.
Syed Aminul Islam, acting secretary of Law and Justice Division of law ministry, said as per an order, the acting chief prosecutor was supposed to carry out activities in absence of chief prosecutor. Once the chief joined, the acting chief prosecutor post becomes invalid.
The investigation agency of the tribunal has completed its probe into Jamaat's alleged war crimes and submitted its report to the prosecution on March 27 with a recommendation to ban the Islamist party.
A seven-member prosecution team led by Tureen Afroz is scrutinising the probe report and other documents of the investigators so that formal charges could be filed. The team's work was at the final stage.
On behalf of Haider, Prosecutor Hrishikesh Saha issued the notice on May 15 referring to a prosecution meeting of May 11 headed by Haider, even though Tipoo had already joined work then.
Tureen Afroz, who was absent in the meeting, received the notice yesterday. She wrote to the chief prosecutor and said the documents were under the chief prosecutor's custody and thus they could not hand over the documents.
Tureen said she had regularly informed whoever the chief prosecutor was about the progress of their work.
Tureen told The Daily Star last night, "This is very unfortunate and unacceptable. The move will push the case into uncertainty."
"After receiving the notice, we |team members) have stopped working [on the case] and sought directives from the chief prosecutor," she mentioned.
Tipoo, after returning from Singapore, on April 30 joined work and informed everyone concerned including Haider about his return, sources said.
Ghulam Arief Tipoo could not be reached for comments.
The rift over power in the 21-member prosecution team has been going on since the appointment of MK Rahman as the chief coordinator, which theTipoo claims to be illegal.
MK Rahman has been removed from the post of additional attorney general yesterday.
Haider Ali and several other prosecutors held meetings called by MK Rahman over the last few months but prosecutors loyal to Tipoo have been refraining from joining.
Even the law minister had a meeting with all prosecutors to stop the infighting but his attempts apparently failed.
After completing its seven-month probe, the investigation agency on March 25 said it found the Jamaat and its six associated bodies' involvement in grievous crimes during the Liberation War and recommended banning the anti-liberation platforms.
It also suggested confiscating assets of these organisations. The six organisations are Jamaat's then student body Islami Chhatra Sangha, the Peace Committee, Razakar Bahini, Al-Badr Bahini, Al-Shams Bahini and Jamaat's mouthpiece daily Sangram.