The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), Bangladesh special court to bring the people accused of committing crimes against humanity in 1971, is waiting to pronounce its 29th judgement.
The case, which is waiting for its judgement to be declared, is against six Gaibandha accused including former Jamaat lawmaker Abdul Aziz alias Ghoramara Aziz, 65.
“The ICT-1 on May 9 had declared it would pronounce the judgment in the case on any day as it kept the matter on CAV (a Latin legal term meaning the court awaits judgement). But the judgement is perhaps not being pronounced due to the absence of ICT-1 chairman Justice Anwarul Haque. He is seriously ill and not being able to attend the court proceedings to pass the verdict,” prosecutor Syed Sayedul Haque Suman told BSS.
The ICT-1 already passed 17 judgements including against Jamaat leaders Ghulam Azam, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Matiur Rahman Nizami and ATM Azharul Islam and former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Qader Chowdhury.
The ICT-2, which remained non-functioning from September 15, 2015, had delivered verdicts in 11 cases, including against Abul Kalam Azad alias Bacchu Razakar, Jamaat leaders Abdul Qader Mollah, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Mir Quasem Ali and Mawlana Abdus Subhan.
Of the convicted war criminals, Mollah, Kamaruzzaman, Mujahid, Mir Quasem, Nizami and Salauddin Qader Chowdhury have been executed on different occasions after completing all the legal procedures.
Former Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee, who was handed death sentence by the ICT-1 on February 28, 2013, however, managed to save his neck as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on September 17, 2014, commuted the death sentence to imprisonment till his natural death.
The state on January 12, 2016, filed a petition to review the apex court judgment, pleading to increase his sentence of imprisonment till natural death to maximum punishment. Sayedee on January 17, 2016, filed his review plea, seeking acquittal from the charges of crimes against humanity.
But the apex court on May 15, 2017, dismissed both the pleas, making the war criminal to pass rest of his life behind bars.
