Dhaka (The Daily Star/ANN) - Forty years after liberation, former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam was sent to jail yesterday on charges of committing crimes against humanity and peace, genocide and war crimes in 1971.
The International Crimes Tribunal, rejecting his petition for bail, yesterday ordered sending Azam to Dhaka Central Jail.
The prosecution on January 5 brought 62 specific charges against the former Jamaat chief. On January 9, the tribunal accepted the charges and asked his counsel Abdur Razzaq, also a top Jamaat leader, to produce the ex-ameer before the court by 10:30am yesterday. Otherwise, it warned, it would issue a warrant of arrest against Azam.
The courtroom was brimming with lawyers, observers and journalists yesterday. Several groups formed human chains and brought out processions outside the tribunal premises demanding Azam's arrest.
Several hundred lawyers and ordinary people were also eagerly waiting outside the courtroom to know of the tribunal's decision.
Ghulam Azam, one of the front men who actively helped the Pakistani occupation forces' attempt to foil the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, comes under the spotlight once again after yesterday's development.
The trial of individuals who committed crimes during the war under the leadership of Ghulam Azam and some other leaders has been a longstanding demand of the nation. The demand for Azam's arrest has become even more powerful since the tribunal was set up in March 2010.
Expectations of his arrest ran high after the prosecution submitted charges against him before the tribunal last December. Many considered the arrest to be a big challenge for the government given that Jamaat activists could let chaos loose over the issue.
Against such a backdrop, Azam seemed to have appeared before the tribunal prepared for going to jail, thinking ahead of time that his bail petition might get rejected. His private secretary brought a black suitcase containing his personal belongings.
When security personnel had the suitcase opened, Azam's towels, lungi, pink napkins, medicines, shaving kit, toothpaste and toothbrush were noticed among the contents in it.
Meanwhile, security was beefed up across the country, especially on and around the tribunal premises, hours before Azam was scheduled to appear before the court.
After yesterday's court proceedings, Azam was taken to a lockup on the ground floor of the tribunal where he waited for a prison van to take him to Dhaka Central Jail.
Around noon, another Jamaat leader, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, was brought into that lockup where he waited before being produced at the tribunal for his trial in connection with similar war crimes charges.
Azam and Sayedee greeted each other in the lockup.
A few minutes later, Sayedee was taken to court while a prison van took Azam to jail. Azam's son, former Brig Gen Abdullahil Aman Azmi, boarded the guard chamber of the van to accompany his father to jail.
After a three-hour wait at the admission section of Dhaka Central Jail, Azam was sent to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for a medical check-up.
During the hearing, defence counsel Abdur Razzaq prayed to the tribunal to grant bail to the ex-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami on medical and humanitarian grounds, as it had been done in the case of Abdul Alim, another accused in the war crimes trial and former BNP lawmaker from Joypurhat.
Razzaq told the court that Ghulam Azam, author of many books, left politics eleven years ago and had motor difficulties due to old-age complications such as diabetes and back pain. He said Ghulam Azam should obtain bail as he would not flee the country and would face trial.
He said Ghulam Azam's doctors had advised him to take complete rest, restrict his movements, and take medicines regularly.
Chief Prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo then stood up and opposed the bail petition submitted by Ghulam Azam on January 10. He said Ghulam Azam had been the "pioneer of all atrocities committed during the Liberation War in 1971".
The cases against Ghulam Azam and Abdul Alim are very different, said Tipoo.
The tribunal had taken the formal charges against Ghulam Azam into cognisance for trial, he said, but it had granted bail to Abdul Alim as the investigation into the allegations against him were yet to be completed.
Citing the trials of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian-born US citizen in Germany, and Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak, Ghulam Arieff Tipoo argued that the health and age related problems of Ghulam Azam did not justify granting him bail.
On May 12, 2011, John Demjanjuk at the age of 91 was convicted as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews from March 27, 1943 to mid September 1943 and sentenced to five years in prison, he said, adding that throughout the course of his two year trial, John Demjanjuk was held in custody at the Stadelheim Prison in Munich, Germany.
Tipoo said Ghulam Azam spearheaded the formation of the Shanti Committee, Razakar, Al Badr and Al Shams as auxiliary forces of the then Pakistani occupation army and instigated them into committing atrocities and crimes against humanity.
Ghulam Azam was not incapable of movement and he even frequently talked to the media against the allegations brought against him, said Tipoo, adding that the scope for granting him bail was very limited.
After hearing the arguments of the two sides, the tribunal comprising its chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir and AKM Zaheer Ahmed at around 11:20am ordered that Azam be sent to prison.
The tribunal fixed February 15 for hearing the charge framing against the ex-Jamaat chief.
It directed the prosecution to submit the copies of the formal charge and relevant documents to its registrar's office by today, and ordered the defence to collect those copies from the office by January 15.
Following the order, Abdur Razzaq repeatedly requested the judges to direct the jail authorities to provide division facilities to Ghulam Azam.
The tribunal said it had no jurisdiction to pass such an order.
It said the tribunal believed that the jail authorities would keep the health condition of Ghulam Azam in mind.
After the proceedings, prosecution lawyer Tipoo told reporters at his office that the tribunal's order against Ghulam Azam was absolutely correct and lawful.
"The order has fulfilled the expectations and desire of the nation. We are happy with the order and also with the fact that we have discharged our duties rightly. We have won," he said.
Prosecutor Rana Dasgupta told The Daily Star that the trial of Ghulam Azam might end in three months if everything went well.
Meanwhile, Abdur Razzaq told journalists that the tribunal's order was absolutely "incorrect" as it had rejected his client's bail petition.
"We still do not know the allegations brought against Ghulam Azam," Razzaq told reporters at the entrance of the tribunal.
"He [Ghulam Azam] is innocent until proven guilty. It is unfortunate that we cannot move any appeal with the High Court and the Supreme Court against any order of the tribunal," he said.
COPYRIGHT: ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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