The International Crimes Tribunal’s (ICT) chief prosecutor has withdrawn Prosecutor Mohammad Ali from all kinds of proceedings related to investigation and trials of 1971 war crimes.
In a letter issued on Feb 4, Chief Prosecutor Golam Arif Tipu said that the move was taken in ‘public interest’.
“Prosecutor Mohammad Ali has been removed from all war crimes trial investigations including those of Al Badr Shamsur Rahman and Hossain Tarafdar,” it read.
The letter said that Ali will not be able to represent the prosecution in any trial at the tribunal until further notice.
It did not cite any other specific reason behind the decision except ‘public interest’.
Chief Prosecutor Tipu did not respond to phone calls on Tuesday despite several attempts.
ICT Prosecutor Ziad Al Malum told bdnews24.com that the order was already in effect, but did not say anything about the allegations against Ali.
“The chief prosecutor has the authority to either attach any prosecutor to a case or withdraw him/her,” he said on Tuesday.
Local media reported that Ali had ‘facilitated bail’ for the defendant in one of the two cases he was responsible for.
He, however, denied that while speaking to a daily newspaper and claimed some of his colleagues made that allegations out of animosity.
In 2014, Prosecutor Turin Afroz filed a complaint with police over suspicions of data theft from her computer at her ICT office.
Ali also filed a complaint with police seeking ‘proper investigation’ of the incident as he shares the same room with Afroz at the ICT prosecution’s office. —
