The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday allowed conditional bail to former director general of National Security Intelligence Muhammad Wahidul Haque in a crime against humanity case.
The three-judge panel of the ICT, led by justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, passed the order after holding hearing in this regard.
鈥楬e [Wahidul] is 78-year old and languishing in jail for last six and a half years after getting arrested in the case. He is suffering from different old-age complications. We had pleaded for bail, saying the former government filed the forged and fabricated case against him, being angered for not getting illegal assistance from him during his tenures in NSI and police. The tribunal after going through all the relevant documents and hearing our arguments, allowed him the bail,鈥� defence counsel Abdus Sattar Palwan told media.
He said that the court granted the bail on conditions of not visiting or giving any threats to any witnesses, not talking to any media, not going outside, not leaving the country and keeping his passport in court custody.
The ICT-1 on October 16, 2019, indicted Muhammad Wahidul on the charges of committing crimes against humanity, genocide, and violating Geneva Convention in 1971.
According to the prosecution, Wahidul Haque, an adjutant of 29 cavalry regiment based in Rangpur Cantonment, went on a killing spree on March 28, 1971, as he and his subordinates brush fired on freedom loving people of the area and killed around 600 innocents.
They also set fire to houses and burnt the bodies of those killed in their gunfire, the prosecution said.
The ICT probe body launched their investigation against Wahidul on December 5, 2016, and concluded on October 30, 2018. They made 54 people witnesses in the trial.
Wahidul Haque was arrested on April 24, 2018, from his Baridhara house right after the ICT-1 issued arrest warrant against him.
