war crimes trial
JP MP Hannan, son land in jail
A Dhaka court yesterday sent Jatiya Party (Ershad) MP MA Hannan, his son Rafique Sajjad and two others to jail for their alleged involvement in crimes committed against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasibul Haque passed the order when police produced them before his court. The two other accused are Dr Khandaker Golam Sabbir and Mizanur Rahman Mintu. Earlier on Thursday, police arrested the JaPa MP from his Gulshan residence while his son Rafique Sajjad was picked up from an office in the same area. A team of Gulshan Police Station arrested them following arrest warrants issued against them by the International Crimes Tribunal-1. On May 19 last, Rahima Khatun, widow of martyr freedom fighter Abdur Rahman of Bailor Munshipara in Trishal upazila in Mymensingh, registered the case with the District Cognisance Court-1 against three people, including MA Hannan, 70, for allegedly committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
The case was filed with the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court No. 1 of Mymensingh under Section 3 (2) of International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973. Later, magistrate Ahsan Habib sent the case to the ICT in Dhaka.
In the case statement, Rahima alleged that Hannan, the then secretary of Mymen-singh Peace Committee, an anti-liberation organisation, and other local collaborators, including Fakruzzaman and Rabbani of the Pakistani army, held her husband at Bhangnamari Char in Gouripur upazila on August 9, 1971. Rahman was later taken to a torture cell set up by the Pakistani army on Bangladesh Agricultural University campus and Hannan himself shot him dead after torturing him, the complainant alleged. Jatiya Party Presidium Member MA Hannan was elected MP from Mymensingh-7 constituency (Trishal) in the 10th parliamentary elections held in 2014.
