Nizami verdict any day

On the closing day of the re-hearing on summing-up arguments, both the prosecution and the defence lawyers made contradictory claims over the fate of war crimes accused, the 1971 villainous Al Badr supremo Motiur Rahman Nizami, and now Jamaat-e-Islami ameer. The prosecution lawyers demanded capital punishment to Nizami before the International Crimes Tribunal-1 for committing crimes against humanity, including genocide, during the Liberation war, as it has proved 15 out of 16 charges ‘beyond any shadow of doubt’, while the defence lawyers prayed for his acquittal from the charges as the evidence of the prosecution witnesses appears ‘tutored’ for which there is no scope of awarding any sentence sans letting him off. After hearing both the sides, the tribunal kept pending its judgment to be delivered any day. Recalling its earlier order (judgment to be delivered any day), the three-member tribunal with its newly-appointed chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim, who took over 56 days after his predecessor Justice ATM Fazle Kabir went on retirement, started re-hearing on March 10 with the prosecution case summing-up arguments along with law points. Earlier, the three-member tribunal with Justice ATM  Fazle Kabir as its chairman had kept pending its verdict in the Nizami case to be delivered any day, after closing the summing-up arguments from both the prosecution and the defence lawyers since November last year, according to UNB.