DHAKA, March 5, 2026 (BSS) - The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 today 
adjourned till March 30 the hearing of a case filed against 13 people, 
including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, over enforced disappearances 
and torture at the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) during the previous Awami 
League government.
 
The three-member tribunal headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mazumder passed 
the order as prosecution witness Iqbal Chowdhury, 71, concluded his testimony 
in the case today. The defence is scheduled to cross-examine him on that day.
 
Chowdhury, who appeared as the fourth prosecution witness and placed the 
first half of his testimony on March 2, narrated how he was picked up by 
plainclothes security personnel on May 7, 2018, from his Mohammadpur Beribadh 
flat and spent almost a year at the JIC, where he went through barbaric 
torture.
 
"My two elder sisters died while I was in the JIC, and my younger brother 
died just 40 days before my release on April 25, 2019. I demand justice for 
the mental and physical torture, persecution, and enforced disappearance I 
was subjected to," he said today.
 
The witness blamed ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Major General Tarique 
Ahmed Siddique, and the officials who were in charge of the Joint 
Interrogation Cell at that time for his sufferings and pleaded for their 
trial.
 
The first tribunal on December 18, 2025, framed charges in the case.
 
The other 12 accused are - Sheikh Hasina's former security and defence 
adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique; Md Akbar Hossain, Md Saiful Abedin, Md Saiful 
Alam, Md Tabrej Shams Chowdhury, Hamidul Haque, Mohammad Touhidul Islam, 
Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, Kabir Ahammed, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui, Ahmed 
Tanvir Mazhar Siddiqui and Mokhchurul Haque.
 
Three of the 13 accused are in custody and are facing trial in person. They 
are Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, Md Mahbubur Rahman Siddiqui and Ahmed Tanvir 
Mazhar Siddiqui. The three pleaded not guilty before the tribunal.
 
Earlier on October 8, the tribunal took cognisance of charges against 30 
people, including Sheikh Hasina, in two separate cases over enforced 
disappearances and torture allegedly carried out at the Taskforce for 
Interrogation (TFI) Cell and the JIC during the Awami League's rule.
 
The prosecution has also brought another five charges against 17 people, 
including Sheikh Hasina and Tarique Ahmed Siddique, over similar crimes 
allegedly committed at the TFI Cell.
 
The other accused in that case are Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Benazir Ahmed, M 
Khurshid Hossain, Barrister Md Harun Ur Rashid, Anwar Latif Khan, Md Jahangir 
Alam, Tofayel Mostafa Sarwar, KM Azad, Md Qamrul Hasan, Md Mahabub Alam, 
Abdullah Al Momen, Md Sarwar Bin Qashem, Md Khairul Islam, Md Moshiur Rahman 
Jewel and Saiful Islam Suman.