DHAKA: The High Court Monday rejected a writ petition filed by two detained Jamaat leaders challenging the legality of some provisions of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act and the first amendment to the constitution.  

An HC bench comprising Justice Mohammad Abdul Wahhub Mia and Justice Kazi Reza-Ul-Haque issued the order after the third day’s hearing, thereby disapproving of the challenge against the war crimes trial underway as per the impugned legal provisions.

The court ruled that the writ was not placed before the court for hearing as the petitioners’ lawyer, Barrister Abdur Razzak, had appealed for stopping the hearing in the bench.

Barrister Abdur Razzak and barrister Moudud Ahmed MP had moved the writ petition with the High Court on behalf of detained Assistant secretaries-general of Jamaat-e-Islami Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah on August 16, seeking its direction for suspending the trial proceedings against them under the Act.

The writ was filed challenging the legality of sections 3(1), 6(2), 6(8), 19(1), 19(3) and 20(2) of the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973.

The writ petitioners claimed that the articles 47(3) and 47(A) of the first amendment to the constitution “curtail the fundamental rights” of prisoners of war involved in war crimes as they can only appeal to the Appellate Division and not to the High Court in the first place.

According to the writ, the articles “snatched” the High Court’s judicial review power in contravention of the basic structure of the constitution.

The International Crimes Tribunal under the 1973 act is holding the trial of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the Liberation War.

Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee and assistant secretaries-general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah are now facing trial in the war-crime tribunal.

BDST: 1505 HRS, AUG 23, 2010