26 Dec 2011: Azam charges sent back

Today's date was set for a cognisance hearing relating to Gholam Azam, the former leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The prosecution had submitted formal charges against him on 12 December.

Justice Kabir read out the order:

'Today is fixed for passing an order in the matter of cognisance of offence against Ghulam Azam. We have perused formal charges, investigation report, statement of witnesses and other documents annexed herewith. The formal charge as submitted by the prosecution appears to have been prepared in a scattered way. The alleged charges have not been properly arranged and classified and thus those are not in an orderly form.

Let the formal charges along with document submitted by prosecution be returned to the learned Chief Prosecutor for resubmitting the same afresh in a systematic form in the office of the registrar by 5/1/2012.'

The following is an extract of a report published by the Daily Star the next morning.

After the tribunal passed the order, Ghulam Azam's chief counsel Barrister Abdur Razzak told reporters that prosecutors have failed to submit the formal charges against his client in legal way although they have investigated the allegations against him for more than two years.

The formal charges were not properly classified and specified which proved that they have brought the allegations against his client to politically harass him.

Meanwhile, chief prosecutor Ghulam Arif Tipu told reports that the charges against Ghulam Azam were right but those will have to be rearranged specifically as per the tribunal order.

The former Jamaat ameer has been charged with 52 counts of crimes against humanity, which include leading mass murder of intellectuals on December 14, 1971 and the killing of 38 prisoners of Brahmanbaria jail.

The charges pressed by the prosecution on the day also held Ghulam Azam responsible for all atrocities committed across the country between March 25 and December 16, 1971.