The work of the International Crimes Tribunal will continue amid hartal and blockades and the tribunal is independent and not under any court the
chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal-2 Justice Obaidul Hassan said on Tuesday. “We are not under the High Court or the Appellate Division. We’re independent,”
he told the defence when defence counsel Advocate Gazi Tanim placed an application for adjournment and cited similar instances, at the High Court and the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court, as his senior Advocate Mizanul Islam remained absent at the tribunal due to the nationwide blockade,
The three-member tribunal also concluded the cross-examination of the prosecution witness number 14 in the case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yousuf and set
December 8 to hear the deposition of the other prosecution witnesses.
AKM Yousuf is facing 13 charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.
Earlier, the same tribunal also closed the cross-examination of the 12th and 13th prosecutions witnesses over the absence of the defence counsel. In support of the
time petition, defence counsel Tanim said Advocate Mizanul Islam could not come to the tribunal for security reasons. The tribunal then said, “if everyone could come,
why only Mizanul Islam could not come to the tribunal?”
As Tanim cited the instances of the High Court and the Appellate Division, the tribunal then said the tribunal was not under any other court.
-With The Independent input
