War crime chargespressed against 3Jamaat leaders

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The prosecution Sunday formally accused three top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami of 1971 war crime charges as the nation is set to celebrate this week the 40th anniversary of Victory Day amid intensified campaign for expediting trial of "crimes against humanity", reports BSS. "The (International Crimes) Tribunal has set December 11 for hearing of charges against Jamaat Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed and Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Quamruzzaman as we submitted formally the charges against them," a prosecution lawyer said the news agency. He also added that the three-judge tribunal, headed by Justice Nizamul Haq, granted one more week until December 18 to submit the charge against another Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Abdul Qader Mollah on a prosecution petition for extending time. The three stalwarts of the rightwing party that opposed the country's 1971 independence siding with the then Pakistani junta appeared under tight security vigil from Dhaka Central Jail as the charges against them were submitted at the tribunal at the Supreme Court complex. A special investigation agency on October 31 filed a 411- page charge sheet, 366-page charge sheet against Mujaheed, 327- page charges sheet against Quamruzzaman and 385-page charge sheet against Qader Mollah.