The international Crime Tribunal-1 (ICT-1) on Sunday fixed December 23 for hearing the charge framing against seventeen people including Sheikh Hasina and ten former army officers in a case filed over enforced disappearances and torture at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) during the Awami League regime.
A three-member panel, headed by ICT-1 Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumder, passed the order as a defense counsel filed a petition seeking time.
Earlier in the day, ten army officers were produced before the court amid tight security from Dhaka Cantonment Special Jail.
They are--former Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Additional Director General Brig Gen Md Jahangir Alam, Brig Gen Tofayel Mostafa Sarwar, Brig Gen Md Kamrul Hasan, Brig Gen Md Mahbub Alam, Brig Gen K.M. Azad, Col Abdullah Al Momen and Col Anwar Latif Khan, ex-Rab intelligence wing officials Lt Col Md Mashiur Rahman, Lt Col Saiful Islam Sumon, Lt Col Sarwar Bin Kashem.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former defence and security adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and three other accused went into hiding.
According to the prosecution, 30 individuals, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, have been named as accused in the two cases.
One case names 17 accused, another 13.
Hasina has been named in two of the cases. Among the 25 army officers charged, 15 are currently in custody.
The first case involves allegations that opposition figures were abducted and secretly detained and tortured inside the Task Force Interrogation (TFI) cell operated by Rab during the Awami League’s tenure.
In the case, the formal charges naming Hasina and 16 others were submitted on October 8.
The second case was filed against Hasina, and 12 others over enforced disappearances allegedly carried out at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC), also known as the “Aynaghar.”
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam presented the charges before the tribunal and requested that they be accepted for trial.
After a preliminary hearing, the tribunal issued arrest warrants and ordered the accused to appear before the court by October 22.