bdnews24.com: The International Crime Tribunal (ICT) has taken cognisance of war crimes charges brought against nine people, including former Jatiya Party MP Shakhawat Hossain. The ICT-1 led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, however, acquitted three others off the charges brought by the prosecutions on Tuesday. The eight others, who will be prosecuted, are Md Billal Hossain Biswas, Md Ibrahim Hossain, Sheikh Md Mojibur Rahman, MA Aziz Sardar, Abdul Aziz Sardar, Kazi Ohidul Islam, Md Lutfur Morhal and Md Abdul Khalek. JP leader Shakhawat Hossain and Billal Biswas are in jail now. “The court has set Sep 30 for the next day for hearing and ordered arrest of the seven absconding,” Prosecutor Rezia Sultana told reporters. She said that the court acquitted three—Md Akram Hossain, Azihar Morhal and Moshiur Rahman—for insufficient prima facie evidence to back the charges. Of them, Hossain and Morhal are in jail while Rahman is absconding. The prosecution’s investigation wing started probing against the 12 persons in February 2012. The investigation report was filed to the tribunal in June this year. Shakhawat Hossain, who is the religious affairs secretary of JP, had been a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami. He was elected MP from Jessore-6 from the Jamaat in 1991, but left the party before the term and joined the BNP. Hossain, who is better known as Maulana Shakhawat, has often switched political parties. He was even in the LDP and the PDP. But during the 2014 national election, he got JP’s nomination from Jessore-6, but did not win the polls.
