The High Court yesterday (December 15) rejected a petition filed by four top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders for quashing proceedings of the cases filed against them with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
The HC passed the judgment with some observations that include "there is inconsistency between the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 and the rules, made under this Act in 2010", said lawyers.
According to the Section 11(5) of the 1973 Act, the Tribunal has the power to direct or issue arrest warrant against those persons, who are charged with the crimes specified in the Act's Section 3 and charge, as per the 2010 rules, has to be framed by the Tribunal, the HC observed.
While, Section 6 and 9 (1) of the International Crimes Tribunal Rules of Procedures-2010 quoted of issuing arrest warrant against the accused persons during investigation, according to the HC observation.
Earlier, during the hearing on the petition, the petitioners' lawyer Barrister Abdur Razzak placed his argument drawing the court's attention on the said contradiction.
The four Jamaat leaders, who filed the petition, are: the party Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, its Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, senior assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Kader Mollah.
They are now detained in the cases filed against them.
The leaders filed the petition with the HC on September 29, this year. They also sought bail from the court in the Tribunal cases.
A bench of the HC Division of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AKM Abdul Hakim passed the judgment with some observations after hearing both the sides for and against the petition.
The petitioners' lawyer told reporters that the HC said in its judgment that 'the Tribunal is not subordinate to HC Division of the SC; the rules of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), under which the quashment petition was filed, are not applicable here'.
No comments:
Post a Comment