Dhaka [Bangladesh], October 22 : Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal (ICT) on Wednesday ordered 15 serving army officers to be sent to jail. They were accused of enforced disappearances during Sheikh Hasina's tenure. The officers denied the complaint.
The army officers were taken to a sub-jail inside the Dhaka Cantonment. Earlier, the officers, who were in the custody of the Bangladesh Army, were brought to the tribunal around 7:00 am and produced before ICT-1 amid tight security.
The officers are: Maj Gen Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossen; Brigadier Generals Md Jahangir Alam, Tofayel Mostofa Sarwar, Md Qamrul Hasan, Md Mahbub Alam, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddique, and Ahmed Tanvir Majahar Siddique; Colonels Anowar Latif Khan, AKM Azad, Abdullah Al Momen, and Md Sarwar Bin Kashem; Lieutenant Colonels Md Moshiur Rahman Jewel, Saiful Islam Sumon, and Mohammad Redowanul Islam; and Major Rafat Bin Alam Moon.
Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam said that law enforcement agencies arrested a total of 15 accused in three cases and presented them before the tribunal on Wednesday.
Barrister M Sarwar Hossain, the defense lawyer, commented that the army officers surrendered to the court out of respect for the law. "We have made a prayer for bail. There will be a hearing on the next date," Hossain said.
Earlier on October 8, Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal issued warrants against 30 accused, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in two separate cases of crimes against humanity committed through enforced disappearances during the Awami League regime.
The accused were ordered to be arrested and produced in court by October 22. A three-member bench of the ICT, led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Majumder, issued the order on Wednesday.
Apart from Hasina, those against whom arrest warrants have been issued include former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, retired Major General Tariq Ahmed Siddique, the former Prime Minister's defense adviser, and former police chief Benzir Ahmed. Twenty-seven of the remaining defendants are former and serving army officers.
The prosecution filed formal complaints in two cases of disappearance with the ICT. Later, Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam presented the two complaints to the ICT and applied for the issuance of warrants, which the ICT granted.
In one case, 17 people, including Hasina and her adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, have been charged with abducting opposition activists and detaining them at the secret Taskforce for Interrogation (TFI) cell, allegedly run by the Rapid Action Battalion, where victims were reportedly tortured.
The prosecution brought five charges of crimes against humanity in this case.
In the second case, Sheikh Hasina, Tarique Siddique, and 11 others have been charged with detaining victims at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence's (DGFI) Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) and torturing them.
This case also includes five charges of crimes against humanity and names five former DGFI directors general among the accused.
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