War Crimes Fugitives: Police to report every 15 days

Police will submit reports every 15 days to the International Crimes Tribunal about the war crimes fugitives with reasons behind their failure to arrest, the inspector general of police has written to the tribunal recently.

Superintendents of police of districts concerned will maintain a register on the matter and the SPs along with the officer-in-charge concerned will monitor it so that the tribunal's orders are properly followed, IGP AKM Shahidul Hoque wrote.

Law enforcers took the measures following indictment of a dead man as police failed to inform the tribunal timely about the death of a fugitive war crimes accused. In a written reply to a tribunal's show cause notice, the IGP came up with several steps police took to stop such incidents from recurring, said tribunal sources citing the reply.

Fugitive accused Wazuddin of Mymensingh's Phulbaria upazila died of “old-age complications” on May 7 last year. But police didn't inform the tribunal of the matter until January 12 when a media report brought the matter to the fore.

The “unusual delay and negligence” in informing the tribunal of the death led it to frame charges against him in absentia on December 11 last year since the prosecution, on the basis of an earlier police report, pressed formal charges identifying him as a fugitive.

Following a prosecution's verbal plea, the tribunal on January 31 asked the IGP and the SP for the explanation on “blatant inefficiency and negligence” of police and summoned the SP to appear before it.

On January 16, the tribunal exonerated Mymensingh SP Syed Nurul Islam as he had offered an unconditional apology. But the tribunal did not accept the IGP's explanation as it was not signed by him, and directed him to submit a written one with his own signature within 10 days from the date.

On February 20, the IGP submitted his written explanation and the tribunal on Wednesday accepted his reply finding it “satisfactory.”

Earlier, the IGP had sent his reply by the law officer of the IGP office as he was outside the country, AKM Shahidul said.

WHAT IGP WROTE IN HIS REPLY?

The IGP said although police always comply with the tribunal's orders, including arrest warrants, immediately, all the operational units of police were given some new directives following the incident [of Wazuddin]. He mentioned about eight directives in his reply.

As per the directives, the officer-in-charge of a police station will appoint an officer immediately after receiving an arrest warrant from the tribunal and the officer will personally go to the address of the accused to make an arrest.

If the officer fails to arrest, he or she will collect the addresses of the accused's relatives and will send messages to the authorities concerned to secure arrest of the accused, one directive read.

Police would submit a report to the tribunal if there was no immediate prospect of arresting an accused and if the accused dies, it added.

“In future, police will give more importance and remain cautious in executing the arrest warrant of the International Crimes Tribunal and sending reports,” the IGP wrote.

Asked about police's new initiatives, Prosecutor Tapos Kanti Baul welcomed it.

“On several occasions, police have shown negligence in executing tribunal's orders which ultimately allowed the accused to remain off the hook. I hope police will be more cautious in executing tribunal's orders from now on,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Until November last year, at least 87 accused and convicts were on the run after two war crimes tribunals issued warrants for their arrest since the beginning of war crimes trial in March 2010, according to the ICT's investigation agency.