Arguments against Yusuf from Feb 12

The prosecution in the trial of Jamaat leader AKM Yusuf will start placing arguments against the alleged founder of Razakar Bahini from February 12. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 set the date as the prosecution concluded cross-examining AKM Mahbubur Rahman, eldest son of the accused on Wednesday. Appearing as the sole defence witness (DW), Mahbubur, 54, a businessman by profession, vouched in support of the innocence of his father before the tribunal.
The defence also exhibited the documents that they submitted before the tribunal for their client, through him. “Yes, my father was in support of the unified Pakistan but he was not involved in any kinds of crimes,” the DW said. “As my father was appointed as a minister in the Malik Cabinet in the month of September, 1971, we came to Dhaka from our native Khulna and started living in Mintu Road area. As the cabinet resigned on December 14, 1971, our family took shelter in the then Hotel Intercontinental,” he said. “After 5 or 6 days of the independence, the Red Cross authority handed us over to the Indian army and we were in Dhaka Cantonment for one or one and a half month under their supervision,” Mahbubur added.
“As the Indian army handed over the former members of Malik Cabinet including my father to the Bangladesh Government, we the rest of the members of our family returned to Khulna,” he added. Accepting the fact that his father was sentenced to life imprisonment under the Collaborators Act in 1972, Mahbubur said his father was set free by the government in 1973 as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had declared general clemency. After his relatively short deposition, advocate Hrishikesh Saha and Syed Haider Ali cross examined him. The ICT-2 on August 1, 2013, framed 13 specific charges of crimes against humanity, against Yusuf.