Nizami verdict on war crimes today

The International Crimes Tribunal will pronounce today (Tuesday) its crucial judgment on the charges of wartime crimes facing

Jamaat-e-Islami party chief Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, more than three months after it was laid as "case awaiting verdict".

Chairman of the three-member tribunal Justice M Enayetur Rahim, flanked by two other members of the ICT-1, Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque, passed the order as the case came up on the cause list.

The tribunal also issued a production warrant asking the jail authorities to produce the accused Jamaat boss in the court before the delivery of the verdict, report agencies.

A former minister during the past BNP-Jamaat rule, Nizami, already awarded capital punishment in the sensational 10-truck arms smuggling case, faced the trial on charges of involvement in murders and torture of unarmed people along with hatching conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War in collaboration with the Pakistan occupation army.

The charges are based on 16 separate incidents of crimes against humanity, in which at least 600 unarmed people were killed and at least 40 women raped during the war, according to a UNB report.

The most notable of the 16 charges brought against Nizami, also the then president of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971, is his role in eliminating the best brains of the nation through planned killing of intellectuals and professionals prior to the nation's victory on December 16, 1971. On December 11, 2011, the prosecution submitted the formal charges against the Jamaat leader before the tribunal.

The tribunal on January 9, 2012 took cognisance of the formal charges against Nizami for facing the trial of crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.

On May 28, 2012, the tribunal indicted the Jamaat ameer for committing the 1971 crimes against humanity.

Nizami was arrested in front of the National Press Club on June 29, 2010 after a magistrate court in Dhaka issued a warrant of arrest in connection with a criminal case over hurting the religious sentiment of Muslims. Later, on August 2, 2010, he was shown arrested in the war crimes case.