Three top leaders of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami were today formally accused of committing war crimes during 1971 freedon struggle,paving the way for their speedy trial by International Crimes Tribunal. "The Tribunal has set December 18 for hearing of charges against Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami,secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretary general Muhammad Quamruzzaman as we formally submitted the charges against them," a prosecution lawyer told PTI. He said the three-judge tribunal headed by Justice Niazamul Haq granted one more week until December 18 to submit the charges against Jamaat's another assistant secretary general Abdul Qader Mollah on a prosecution petition seeking more time. The three stalwarts of the right wing party that opposed the country's 1971 independence siding with the then Pakistani junta appeared under tight security vigil from Dhaka Central Jail as the charges against them were submitted at the tribunal at the Supreme Court complex. A special investigation agency on October 31 filed a 411-page charge sheet aginst Nizami,366-page charge sheet against Mojaheed,327-page charge sheet against Quamruzzaman and 385-page charge sheet against Qader Mollah. Today's development came as trial of another Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi was underway at the tribunal with defence counsels cross-examining the two prosecution witnesses who earlier testified against him before the tribunal months after his indictment. The tribunal was constituted in March last year along with the special investigation agency and a prosecution cell in line with the election pledges of the ruling Awami League to expose to trial the war criminals. Five of the seven high-profile war crime suspects detained so far to face the trial belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami,while the rest two were of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The two BNP leaders are Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP and former minister Abdul Alim. If convicted the accused could face the death penalty and the lowest 10 years of imprisonment for crimes like massacre,murders,arsons and rapes but under the International Crimes Tribunal Act the convicts could file appeals before the apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Demands for intensified trial of perpetrators of war crimes grew in recent weeks with political parties and civil society groups including the 1971 Liberation War veterans also waging campaigns for expanding the trial net. The trial of the war criminals will be completed in shortest possible time and that is why the second tribunal will be constituted shortly," State Minister for Law Advocate Quamrul Islam had said.
