Dhaka: The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 on Tuesday asked the counsel for Delwar Hossain Sayedee to finish his arguments by Wednesday.

The three-member panel of ICT-1 said this to Advocate Mizanul Islam, counsel for the Jamaat leader, as he was reading out the recorded depositions of the prosecution witnesses instead of placing his arguments.

"That's not the way to place your arguments. It can't go on and on. You have to finish your arguments by tomorrow and I am reminding you that again," the tribunal said.

The defence is placing their arguments for the third day today and they were supposed to finish by now. But as on Monday the tribunal could not hold its proceedings for full time because of the verdict in the trial of Abul Kalam Azad, Sayedee's counsels are allotted with extra time.

This is the second time the defence are placing their arguments for the nayeb-e-ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami. Earlier on November 5, 2012, the prosecution started placing arguments against Sayedee and finished on November 15. On the other hand, Defence started placing arguments on November 18 and finished on December 6.

On that very day, the tribunal had passed an order after saying the final verdict will be given on any day.

But after the much hyped Skype scandal broke out, which prompted the then chairman of ICT-1 Justice Nizamul Huq to resign, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir took charge of the tribunal.

On January 3, after rejecting a defence petition seeking retrial, the tribunal said it would like to hear the arguments once again for the sake of justice.

It fixed two days for the prosecution and three for the defence to place their arguments. The tribunal said the prosecution can give their reply on legal points for one hour on the arguments of the defence.

On Monday the first tribunal rejected three identical petitions of Ghulam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Delwar Hossain Sayedee seeking review of an order of the tribunal that rejected their plea for retrial.

Ghulam Azam filed the petition on January 10 and the rest filed theirs on January 13.

Ends/AMA/22/01/13