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More gaffes from clueless prosecutor
Wed, Mar 14th, 2012 2:33 pm BdST
Dhaka, Mar 14 (bdnews24.com) Prosecutor Mohammad Ali continued his bumbling act on Wednesday even after being granted an extra day to get his evidences against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla in order at the war crimes tribunal.
The International Crimes Tribunal, set up on Mar 25, 2010 to deal with the crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, however, eventually relieved the prosecutor of his embarrassment that he himself admitted, and fixed Mar 21 for hearing the defence arguments against the indictment of the Jamaat Assistant secretary general.
The tribunal also adjourned indictment hearing of Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami till Thursday. Prosecutor Altaf Uddin Ahmed resumed reading the formal charge after lunch from where he had left off on Tuesday and got to page 52 of the 73-page document before he was stopped for the day.
WHO IS MOLLA?
In Quader Molla's case, prosecutor Mohammad Ali began the day with answering the tribunal's query about how he could establish Molla as an Al Badr leader.
The prosecutor referred to a line in one book which said that all members of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), Jamaat's student wing during 1971, went on to join Al Badr.
The prosecutor then said Molla had stated to the investigation officer that he was president of Jamaat student wing unit at Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University.
The judges then pointed out that the statement of the accused was not acceptable as evidence.
The tribunal chief, Justice Nizamul Huq, then asked, "Do you have any evidence that he was the Islami Chhatra Sangha president at Shahidullah Hall?"
Before Mohammad Ali could begin his reply, tribunal member Justice A T M Fazle Kabir said, "You are not being able to prove anything. You have not been able to show anything to the court."
Justice Kabir said it could not be that all the Sangha members joined Al Badr automatically. "There has to be some list."
Mohammad Ali said he did not have any such evidence.
Justice Kabir retorted, "Then why did you go there? Why bring in something that you cannot prove?"
Justice Huq asked, "Do you have any witness statement that [Molla] was an Islami Chhatra Sangha leader?"
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali: "Not in that way, my lord."
Justice Huq: "Do you have it in some other way?"
Tribunal member, Judge A K M Zaheer Ahmed, stepped in at this point. "Have you verified the statements that Abdul Quader Molla had made?"
Prosecutor Ali: "I understand his statement is not acceptable as evidence but he himself admitted his leadership position."
Judge Ahmed: "Then what kind of scrutiny did you do?"
Justice Kabir: "Whatever was in the investigation report was reproduced in full in the formal charge, and that is the problem."
Judge Ahmed: "You are referring to the book Sunset at Midnight that Islami Chhatra Sangha people joined Al Badr. But there has to be some document that establishes Molla as a Sangha leader, how else would you link him?"
Justice Huq: "You have to prove the charges you brought against Molla, very simple. Either by documents or by witness testimony. Have you got a single piece of evidence?"
Prosecutor Ali: "That is the point, my lord. It is in the process of being collected. But it is quite clear that Molla committed heinous crimes as an individual and as a member of a group of individuals."
NO WITNESSES FOR COUNTS 1-4
Justice Huq then decided to concentrate on each count and began with the first charge where Molla is charged with ordering the murder of on Bangla College student 'Pallab'.
Pallab was a sympathiser of the liberation forces and Quader Molla apparently had him bound and dragged from Mirpur 1 to Mirpur 12 intersection. He was then hung from a tree for two days and his fingers cut off.
Two days later, on April 5, 1971 this Pallab was shot but his body still kept hanging for two more days to illustrate the consequences of joining the liberation efforts.
Molla had apparently announced a prize for every shot fired at Pallab and ordered his associates to shoot the college student. Molla's chief associate, one 'Akhtar' shot Pallab five times in the chest.
Pallab was then buried near a water body called Kalapani in Mirpur with seven other people.
Mohammad Ali said he did not have a witness for this charge and the only documents he had were a book ('Ekatturer Juddhaporadh O Juddhaporadhider Bichar' edited by Shahriar Kabir. The title roughly translates to 'War Crimes of '71 and Trial of War Criminals) and a newspaper report.
Justice Huq grew animated at the incredulity of his own suggestion: "You are saying that other than these documents you don't have any witness? The boy was dragged for at least three miles and you could not find a single witness?!"
Justice Kabir: "Then why did you accept the investigation report?"
Prosecutor Ali began to stutter at this point and continued in the same manner through the end of his submission before the tribunal: "There were only a few Bengalis living in the area at that time. And the witnesses could not be traced."
Justice Huq: "What about the people who spoke to Shahriar Kabir? Why won't they talk to the investigation officer if they can come and speak to him?"
Judge Ahmed: "But you cannot say there are no witnesses because clearly there are."
Prosecutor Ali: "There is one Fajar Ali, Pallab's elder brother who spoke to Shahriar Kabir. But he could not be traced."
Justice Huq: "They were traceable when Shahriar Kabir went looking but not when the investigation officer went?"
Justice Kabir: "Why don't you read Pallab's incident from the book."
Mohammad Ali read out the whole incident from the book which is described by Fajar Ali.
Justice Nizamul Huq reacted the moment he was done. "It has been reproduced here verbatim. The investigation officer did not even go to the place of occurrence."
Prosecutor Ali: "There were so much work, so many places to go for investigation officer. The witnesses could not be traced and there are still many Biharis living in that area."
Justice Huq: "No matter what you say, how is it that they speak to Shahriar Kabir and not to the investigation officer? This book was published in 2007. That is fairly recent. So the witness statements had been collected around 2005. Your investigation officer should have been able to locate them."
Prosecutor Ali kept mumbling: "We could not find the witnesses."
Justice Huq: "You have put down whatever there was in the investigation report."
Prosecutor Ali: "Charges one through four are the same in that regard, my lord."
Justice Kabir sounded as if he could not believe what he was hearing: "What have you done?!"
Judge Ahmed: "We had given you certain authority as a prosecutor. Why did you not verify and scrutinise the investigation report properly?"
Justice Kabir: "Why didn't you return it?"
Judge Ahmed: "We are not going to tell you how to run your investigation. You have to figure that out."
USELESS VOLUME
The tribunal then moved on to the fifth count and asked the prosecutor to read out the charge.
When asked, the prosecutor referred to a witness statement of a thick volume. The judges found that in place. But Judge Zaheer Ahmed, who appears to remain up to date with all the material, sometimes better than the counsels, pointed out to the prosecutor, that the first 105 pages of the volume were irrelevant.
Judge Ahmed: "Did you read all the witness statements?"
Prosecutor Ali: "Yes, my lord."
Judge Ahmed: "Then why did you include these? They have no bearing with Quader Molla's charges."
Prosecutor Ali: "That was to give a general idea."
Justice Kabir: "It appears that you are out to prove that there had indeed been a Liberation War. Those are facts and not at all disputed."
Holding out the volume in his hand separating the irrelevant portion, which is about five times thicker than the relevant part, judge Ahmed said, "Please don't mind. But what is the point of attaching these testimonies? They show on television that you are submitting such volumes of documents. But we are the ones who have to carry them around."
Justice Kabir: "You (Ali) have forgotten to do the real work since you were busy with these things. So far you have not even been able to tell us the identity of the accused."
Prosecutor Ali's stutter went a notch higher: "But it is clear that Quader Molla brutally killed many people and also he directly killed people," he said.
THE JUDGE HITS THE SPOT
Justice Kabir vigorously began to turn pages of witness statement as the prosecutor laboured on and having found what he was looking for, addressed the prosecutor again. "You have been going through these the whole night but could not find a statement. But I found it in three minutes."
He then referred to a page where a witness states that Quader Molla was an Islami Chhatra Sangha leader.
Prosecutor Ali began to say, "I had marked it " He could not finish as he had become too excited and the tribunal chairman finished the rest of the sentence for him. Justice Huq said, " but could not collect in my memory."
Prosecutor Ali, thankful that the chairman had read his mind and finished the sentence, said: "Yes, yes, my lord!"
ORDER MEANS PRESENCE
Judge Zaheer Ahmed then moved to another point and asked the prosecutor about the different sections under which he wanted to charge Molla.
He first brought up section 4.1 of the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act of 1973 which states that when crimes specified by the Act crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, genocide, etc are "committed by several persons, each of such person is liable for that crime in the same manner as if it were done by him alone".
Judge Ahmed then asked the prosecutor, "Why do you want to charge him under 4.1?
Prosecutor Ali: "Because he did not kill with his own hands but he is guilty of the crimes."
Judge Ahmed: "Alright, for the first count, have you mentioned that Molla was present at the crime scene?
Prosecutor Ali: "Yes, my lord."
Judge Ahmed: "Where?"
This sent the prosecutor on another wild goose chase and he read out the entire charge where Quader Molla was only mentioned as the one giving the order to kill Pallab. Mohammad Ali hung on to the word 'order' which is in the formal charge and said, "The order is there." And he continued, "So presence may be presumed."
Judge Zaheer Ahmed then elicited from the prosecutor's mumbling response that what he meant to say was that a person had to be present at the crime scene to be able to give the order for execution.
Justice Nizamul Huq then asked if the formal charges stated in any one place where Molla was present.
The prosecutor then led the tribunal to one such reference in the formal charge. The tribunal chairman then found out that the formal charge was copied into from the investigation except that "And Molla was present" was added in the formal charge.
Noting the similarity except the few words, Justice Huq asked, "Is this the product of your imagination or what? Where did you get this?"
Mohammad Ali again tried to make the point that one had to be present to given an order.
Judge Zaheer Ahmed: "So you had it copied verbatim and just added that Molla was present on your own, without even going to the place of occurrence?"
Regarding the second charge relating to the killing of poetess Meherunnesa, Mohammad Ali said he relied upon the same Bhorer Kagoj report of 2007.
The tribunal chief then charged the prosecutor why he could not find any reports dating back to 1972 when there had been hundreds of reports.
Prosecutor Ali: "We could not collect them."
Justice Huq: "You did not even look for them! How would you find them then? It is unfortunate but we have these materials with us but that cannot be used to for the case. Why don't you go to Begum magazine offices and find out."
The tribunal chairman then rattled off the address of the magazine and Judge Zaheer Ahmed named the editor who the prosecutor should meet.
The prosecutor began to say that there was a "scarcity of time".
Justice Huq: "No no, not all."
HEIGHT OF VAGUENESS
The tribunal then moved on to charges three and four, which do not name any victim specifically. Count three charges Molla for being responsible for the thousands of murders between Mar 25 and Dec 16 of 1971 in Mirpur area.
The judges were reaching the limit of their patience by then. They noted that while the first two counts still named victims specifically, the third and fourth count did not even do that.
When the tribunal chairman asked what the charge was against Molla, Mohammad Ali referred to the same book again.
At this Justice Huq said, "Then why don't you just give us the books? We will read them and give a verdict."
He continued, "There has to be a limit to being vague."
Judge Zaheer Ahmed said, "If you are going to charge him like that then why go through all that trouble? Why not then simply charge the man with the deaths between 25th and 16th (meaning March and December respectively) and be done with it?"
"There is not a single person named here. What are we going to try?"
At this point, prosecutor Mohammad Ali, lost as he was, said, "I am also embarrassed."
The tribunal then asked the prosecutor about how his sixth count constituted genocide as he had indicated in the formal charge.
The prosecutor said that a large number of people had been killed.
Justice Huq: "Is a large number by itself sufficient to constitute genocide?"
Judge Ahmed: "The charge only says that a large number of people had died. But do these people constitute an ethnic, racial, religious or political group?"
The prosecutor had no answer. The judges did not grill much longer and allowed him to finish his submission as Mohammad Ali prayed that the tribunal indicted Abdul Quader Molla.
'CHANGED' FORMAL CHARGE
The defence objected to some material changes in the formal charge that the prosecutor had made.
The three-judge tribunal had directed the prosecution to correct the numerous typos and careless mistakes when relating historical facts in the formal charge. The defence had agreed to that since it would not change essential nature of allegations against Molla.
However, Mohammad Ali took the opportunity to make certain other changes that the defence argued was unacceptable since it changed the nature of the formal charge.
Defence counsel Farid Uddin Khan took the judges through a few changes that the prosecutor had made. The tribunal agreed with the defence. Tribunal chairman, Justice Nizamul Huq, said, "We will go through both the versions and ignore those changes. Rest assured those changes will not be accepted."
Farid Uddin then prayed for some time for the defence to prepare. Justice Huq asked whether he would conduct the hearing.
The counsel said that he would but he would still have M Tajul Islam by his side.
The tribunal gave him a week.
MOLLA'S CASE
The investigation agency started probe against Quader Molla on July 21 last year, and he was shown arrested in the tribunal on Aug 2.
The investigation report submitted on Nov 1 charged the Jamaat leader for his involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, arson, genocide and looting. The tribunal on Dec 28 took cognisance of charges of crimes against humanity.
On Dec 18, the prosecution submitted formal charges against Molla, indicting him of genocide and crimes against humanity on seven counts, including the killing of 344 people at Mirpur in Dhaka during the 1971 war.
Seven specific charges brought against Molla include killing, arson and looting in Mohammadpur, Mirpur and Keraniganj areas in the city.
THE 'BUTCHER' OF BENGALIS
During the war, Quader Molla was widely known as a "butcher" for his direct involvement in massacring Bangalis. In league with the Urdu-speaking Biharis and other non-Bangalis, he unleashed a killing spree even before the crackdown on Bangalis by Pakistani forces on the night of Mar 25, 1971, known as "Operation Searchlight".
Mollaand some others were accused by Mozaffar Hossain in a case filed at Keraniganj Police Station on Dec 17, 2007, of killing his father Mostafa during the war.
Another case was filed against him with Pallabi police the following year in which he was finally arrested on July 13, 2010.
Besides Quader, others already arrested on war crimes charges are former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam, present Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee, assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, BNP's standing committee member and lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, and former member of BNP founder Gen Ziaur Rahman's cabinet Abdul Alim.
Of the eight Jamaat and BNP leaders facing the charges, only Alim is out on conditional bail.
More gaffes from clueless prosecutor | Politics | bdnews24.com
Wed, Mar 14th, 2012 2:33 pm BdST
Dhaka, Mar 14 (bdnews24.com) Prosecutor Mohammad Ali continued his bumbling act on Wednesday even after being granted an extra day to get his evidences against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Molla in order at the war crimes tribunal.
The International Crimes Tribunal, set up on Mar 25, 2010 to deal with the crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, however, eventually relieved the prosecutor of his embarrassment that he himself admitted, and fixed Mar 21 for hearing the defence arguments against the indictment of the Jamaat Assistant secretary general.
The tribunal also adjourned indictment hearing of Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami till Thursday. Prosecutor Altaf Uddin Ahmed resumed reading the formal charge after lunch from where he had left off on Tuesday and got to page 52 of the 73-page document before he was stopped for the day.
WHO IS MOLLA?
In Quader Molla's case, prosecutor Mohammad Ali began the day with answering the tribunal's query about how he could establish Molla as an Al Badr leader.
The prosecutor referred to a line in one book which said that all members of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), Jamaat's student wing during 1971, went on to join Al Badr.
The prosecutor then said Molla had stated to the investigation officer that he was president of Jamaat student wing unit at Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University.
The judges then pointed out that the statement of the accused was not acceptable as evidence.
The tribunal chief, Justice Nizamul Huq, then asked, "Do you have any evidence that he was the Islami Chhatra Sangha president at Shahidullah Hall?"
Before Mohammad Ali could begin his reply, tribunal member Justice A T M Fazle Kabir said, "You are not being able to prove anything. You have not been able to show anything to the court."
Justice Kabir said it could not be that all the Sangha members joined Al Badr automatically. "There has to be some list."
Mohammad Ali said he did not have any such evidence.
Justice Kabir retorted, "Then why did you go there? Why bring in something that you cannot prove?"
Justice Huq asked, "Do you have any witness statement that [Molla] was an Islami Chhatra Sangha leader?"
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali: "Not in that way, my lord."
Justice Huq: "Do you have it in some other way?"
Tribunal member, Judge A K M Zaheer Ahmed, stepped in at this point. "Have you verified the statements that Abdul Quader Molla had made?"
Prosecutor Ali: "I understand his statement is not acceptable as evidence but he himself admitted his leadership position."
Judge Ahmed: "Then what kind of scrutiny did you do?"
Justice Kabir: "Whatever was in the investigation report was reproduced in full in the formal charge, and that is the problem."
Judge Ahmed: "You are referring to the book Sunset at Midnight that Islami Chhatra Sangha people joined Al Badr. But there has to be some document that establishes Molla as a Sangha leader, how else would you link him?"
Justice Huq: "You have to prove the charges you brought against Molla, very simple. Either by documents or by witness testimony. Have you got a single piece of evidence?"
Prosecutor Ali: "That is the point, my lord. It is in the process of being collected. But it is quite clear that Molla committed heinous crimes as an individual and as a member of a group of individuals."
NO WITNESSES FOR COUNTS 1-4
Justice Huq then decided to concentrate on each count and began with the first charge where Molla is charged with ordering the murder of on Bangla College student 'Pallab'.
Pallab was a sympathiser of the liberation forces and Quader Molla apparently had him bound and dragged from Mirpur 1 to Mirpur 12 intersection. He was then hung from a tree for two days and his fingers cut off.
Two days later, on April 5, 1971 this Pallab was shot but his body still kept hanging for two more days to illustrate the consequences of joining the liberation efforts.
Molla had apparently announced a prize for every shot fired at Pallab and ordered his associates to shoot the college student. Molla's chief associate, one 'Akhtar' shot Pallab five times in the chest.
Pallab was then buried near a water body called Kalapani in Mirpur with seven other people.
Mohammad Ali said he did not have a witness for this charge and the only documents he had were a book ('Ekatturer Juddhaporadh O Juddhaporadhider Bichar' edited by Shahriar Kabir. The title roughly translates to 'War Crimes of '71 and Trial of War Criminals) and a newspaper report.
Justice Huq grew animated at the incredulity of his own suggestion: "You are saying that other than these documents you don't have any witness? The boy was dragged for at least three miles and you could not find a single witness?!"
Justice Kabir: "Then why did you accept the investigation report?"
Prosecutor Ali began to stutter at this point and continued in the same manner through the end of his submission before the tribunal: "There were only a few Bengalis living in the area at that time. And the witnesses could not be traced."
Justice Huq: "What about the people who spoke to Shahriar Kabir? Why won't they talk to the investigation officer if they can come and speak to him?"
Judge Ahmed: "But you cannot say there are no witnesses because clearly there are."
Prosecutor Ali: "There is one Fajar Ali, Pallab's elder brother who spoke to Shahriar Kabir. But he could not be traced."
Justice Huq: "They were traceable when Shahriar Kabir went looking but not when the investigation officer went?"
Justice Kabir: "Why don't you read Pallab's incident from the book."
Mohammad Ali read out the whole incident from the book which is described by Fajar Ali.
Justice Nizamul Huq reacted the moment he was done. "It has been reproduced here verbatim. The investigation officer did not even go to the place of occurrence."
Prosecutor Ali: "There were so much work, so many places to go for investigation officer. The witnesses could not be traced and there are still many Biharis living in that area."
Justice Huq: "No matter what you say, how is it that they speak to Shahriar Kabir and not to the investigation officer? This book was published in 2007. That is fairly recent. So the witness statements had been collected around 2005. Your investigation officer should have been able to locate them."
Prosecutor Ali kept mumbling: "We could not find the witnesses."
Justice Huq: "You have put down whatever there was in the investigation report."
Prosecutor Ali: "Charges one through four are the same in that regard, my lord."
Justice Kabir sounded as if he could not believe what he was hearing: "What have you done?!"
Judge Ahmed: "We had given you certain authority as a prosecutor. Why did you not verify and scrutinise the investigation report properly?"
Justice Kabir: "Why didn't you return it?"
Judge Ahmed: "We are not going to tell you how to run your investigation. You have to figure that out."
USELESS VOLUME
The tribunal then moved on to the fifth count and asked the prosecutor to read out the charge.
When asked, the prosecutor referred to a witness statement of a thick volume. The judges found that in place. But Judge Zaheer Ahmed, who appears to remain up to date with all the material, sometimes better than the counsels, pointed out to the prosecutor, that the first 105 pages of the volume were irrelevant.
Judge Ahmed: "Did you read all the witness statements?"
Prosecutor Ali: "Yes, my lord."
Judge Ahmed: "Then why did you include these? They have no bearing with Quader Molla's charges."
Prosecutor Ali: "That was to give a general idea."
Justice Kabir: "It appears that you are out to prove that there had indeed been a Liberation War. Those are facts and not at all disputed."
Holding out the volume in his hand separating the irrelevant portion, which is about five times thicker than the relevant part, judge Ahmed said, "Please don't mind. But what is the point of attaching these testimonies? They show on television that you are submitting such volumes of documents. But we are the ones who have to carry them around."
Justice Kabir: "You (Ali) have forgotten to do the real work since you were busy with these things. So far you have not even been able to tell us the identity of the accused."
Prosecutor Ali's stutter went a notch higher: "But it is clear that Quader Molla brutally killed many people and also he directly killed people," he said.
THE JUDGE HITS THE SPOT
Justice Kabir vigorously began to turn pages of witness statement as the prosecutor laboured on and having found what he was looking for, addressed the prosecutor again. "You have been going through these the whole night but could not find a statement. But I found it in three minutes."
He then referred to a page where a witness states that Quader Molla was an Islami Chhatra Sangha leader.
Prosecutor Ali began to say, "I had marked it " He could not finish as he had become too excited and the tribunal chairman finished the rest of the sentence for him. Justice Huq said, " but could not collect in my memory."
Prosecutor Ali, thankful that the chairman had read his mind and finished the sentence, said: "Yes, yes, my lord!"
ORDER MEANS PRESENCE
Judge Zaheer Ahmed then moved to another point and asked the prosecutor about the different sections under which he wanted to charge Molla.
He first brought up section 4.1 of the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act of 1973 which states that when crimes specified by the Act crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, genocide, etc are "committed by several persons, each of such person is liable for that crime in the same manner as if it were done by him alone".
Judge Ahmed then asked the prosecutor, "Why do you want to charge him under 4.1?
Prosecutor Ali: "Because he did not kill with his own hands but he is guilty of the crimes."
Judge Ahmed: "Alright, for the first count, have you mentioned that Molla was present at the crime scene?
Prosecutor Ali: "Yes, my lord."
Judge Ahmed: "Where?"
This sent the prosecutor on another wild goose chase and he read out the entire charge where Quader Molla was only mentioned as the one giving the order to kill Pallab. Mohammad Ali hung on to the word 'order' which is in the formal charge and said, "The order is there." And he continued, "So presence may be presumed."
Judge Zaheer Ahmed then elicited from the prosecutor's mumbling response that what he meant to say was that a person had to be present at the crime scene to be able to give the order for execution.
Justice Nizamul Huq then asked if the formal charges stated in any one place where Molla was present.
The prosecutor then led the tribunal to one such reference in the formal charge. The tribunal chairman then found out that the formal charge was copied into from the investigation except that "And Molla was present" was added in the formal charge.
Noting the similarity except the few words, Justice Huq asked, "Is this the product of your imagination or what? Where did you get this?"
Mohammad Ali again tried to make the point that one had to be present to given an order.
Judge Zaheer Ahmed: "So you had it copied verbatim and just added that Molla was present on your own, without even going to the place of occurrence?"
Regarding the second charge relating to the killing of poetess Meherunnesa, Mohammad Ali said he relied upon the same Bhorer Kagoj report of 2007.
The tribunal chief then charged the prosecutor why he could not find any reports dating back to 1972 when there had been hundreds of reports.
Prosecutor Ali: "We could not collect them."
Justice Huq: "You did not even look for them! How would you find them then? It is unfortunate but we have these materials with us but that cannot be used to for the case. Why don't you go to Begum magazine offices and find out."
The tribunal chairman then rattled off the address of the magazine and Judge Zaheer Ahmed named the editor who the prosecutor should meet.
The prosecutor began to say that there was a "scarcity of time".
Justice Huq: "No no, not all."
HEIGHT OF VAGUENESS
The tribunal then moved on to charges three and four, which do not name any victim specifically. Count three charges Molla for being responsible for the thousands of murders between Mar 25 and Dec 16 of 1971 in Mirpur area.
The judges were reaching the limit of their patience by then. They noted that while the first two counts still named victims specifically, the third and fourth count did not even do that.
When the tribunal chairman asked what the charge was against Molla, Mohammad Ali referred to the same book again.
At this Justice Huq said, "Then why don't you just give us the books? We will read them and give a verdict."
He continued, "There has to be a limit to being vague."
Judge Zaheer Ahmed said, "If you are going to charge him like that then why go through all that trouble? Why not then simply charge the man with the deaths between 25th and 16th (meaning March and December respectively) and be done with it?"
"There is not a single person named here. What are we going to try?"
At this point, prosecutor Mohammad Ali, lost as he was, said, "I am also embarrassed."
The tribunal then asked the prosecutor about how his sixth count constituted genocide as he had indicated in the formal charge.
The prosecutor said that a large number of people had been killed.
Justice Huq: "Is a large number by itself sufficient to constitute genocide?"
Judge Ahmed: "The charge only says that a large number of people had died. But do these people constitute an ethnic, racial, religious or political group?"
The prosecutor had no answer. The judges did not grill much longer and allowed him to finish his submission as Mohammad Ali prayed that the tribunal indicted Abdul Quader Molla.
'CHANGED' FORMAL CHARGE
The defence objected to some material changes in the formal charge that the prosecutor had made.
The three-judge tribunal had directed the prosecution to correct the numerous typos and careless mistakes when relating historical facts in the formal charge. The defence had agreed to that since it would not change essential nature of allegations against Molla.
However, Mohammad Ali took the opportunity to make certain other changes that the defence argued was unacceptable since it changed the nature of the formal charge.
Defence counsel Farid Uddin Khan took the judges through a few changes that the prosecutor had made. The tribunal agreed with the defence. Tribunal chairman, Justice Nizamul Huq, said, "We will go through both the versions and ignore those changes. Rest assured those changes will not be accepted."
Farid Uddin then prayed for some time for the defence to prepare. Justice Huq asked whether he would conduct the hearing.
The counsel said that he would but he would still have M Tajul Islam by his side.
The tribunal gave him a week.
MOLLA'S CASE
The investigation agency started probe against Quader Molla on July 21 last year, and he was shown arrested in the tribunal on Aug 2.
The investigation report submitted on Nov 1 charged the Jamaat leader for his involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, arson, genocide and looting. The tribunal on Dec 28 took cognisance of charges of crimes against humanity.
On Dec 18, the prosecution submitted formal charges against Molla, indicting him of genocide and crimes against humanity on seven counts, including the killing of 344 people at Mirpur in Dhaka during the 1971 war.
Seven specific charges brought against Molla include killing, arson and looting in Mohammadpur, Mirpur and Keraniganj areas in the city.
THE 'BUTCHER' OF BENGALIS
During the war, Quader Molla was widely known as a "butcher" for his direct involvement in massacring Bangalis. In league with the Urdu-speaking Biharis and other non-Bangalis, he unleashed a killing spree even before the crackdown on Bangalis by Pakistani forces on the night of Mar 25, 1971, known as "Operation Searchlight".
Mollaand some others were accused by Mozaffar Hossain in a case filed at Keraniganj Police Station on Dec 17, 2007, of killing his father Mostafa during the war.
Another case was filed against him with Pallabi police the following year in which he was finally arrested on July 13, 2010.
Besides Quader, others already arrested on war crimes charges are former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam, present Jamaat chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee, assistant secretary general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, BNP's standing committee member and lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, and former member of BNP founder Gen Ziaur Rahman's cabinet Abdul Alim.
Of the eight Jamaat and BNP leaders facing the charges, only Alim is out on conditional bail.
More gaffes from clueless prosecutor | Politics | bdnews24.com
