The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal was set up last year to try people suspected of committing war crimes during the liberation war in 1971 from Pakistan. On Wednesday, charges were due to be brought against several suspects accused of mass murder and rape.

It was expected on Wednesday morning that Delwar Hossain Sayedee a senior official of the country's largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, who is accused of killing more than 50 people, torching several villages, of rape, of looting and of forcible conversion to Islam, would be formally charged during the tribunal’s first hearing.

However, as soon as Judge Nizamul Huq opened proceedings, he immediately adjourned the court until August 18, when formal charges will be read out.

Sayedee's lawyers argued that they needed more time to prepare for the next hearing, saying that documents provided by the prosecution were "illegible."

"The new date is not giving us sufficient time - we requested eight weeks," Tanvir Ahmed Al Amin told AFP. "The prosecution had many months to prepare, we've had weeks, it is not practical. We will have one day to consult with our client ahead of the next hearing."

Opposition says it is a 'show trial'

The 71-year-old Sayadee and two other members of his Jamaat-e-Islami party were arrested last year, alongside two members of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

In April, the court rejected Sayedee’s application for bail and ruled the war crimes suspects should remain in jail until the investigation was over.

The current government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, says up to three million people were killed in the liberation war of 1971. Many were murdered by Bangladeshi collaborators of the Pakistani occupying forces.

Both the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have dismissed the tribunal as a government ''show trial.' They claim the charges that are brought against their party members are politically motivated.

The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has also criticized the process and said that the rules being used by the tribunal to prosecute war crime suspects fall short of international standards.

Operation Searchlight

The 1971 war began after West Pakistan launched Operation Searchlight, a brutal campaign intended to deter Bangladeshis from seeking independence. Tens of thousands were killed in Dhaka, the capital of what was then known as East Pakistan.

Jamaat-e-Islami party sided with Pakistan as it also tried to prevent Bangladesh from breaking away in the war.

But the killings and subsequent military campaign, that allegedly included rape and torture, served to create a groundswell of public support for the pro-independence movement.

A citizens' group that has looked into the conflict has identified 1,775 people, including Pakistani generals and local Islamists, as complicit in the atrocities.

When the trial begins again, it is expected to go on for months.

Author:Marina Joarder (AFP, AP)
Editor: Anne Thomas