Fifteen serving army officers were sent to jail after being produced before the International Crimes Tribunal amid tight security in Dhaka on Wednesday morning.
Of them, 13 were accused of enforced disappearance, while two others were accused of murder during the July 2024 mass uprising.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, directed the jail authorities to detain the officers, saying that determining the place of detention was not within the tribunal鈥檚 jurisdiction.
Ten arrested army officers were produced together before the courtroom of ICT-1 in one enforced disappearance case.
They are 鈥� Colonel AKM Azad, Colonel Abdullah Al Momen, Lieutenant Colonel Mashiur Rahman Jewel, Brigadier General Kamrul Hasan, Brigadier General Md Mahbub Alam, Brigadier General Tofayel Mostafa Sarwar, Lieutenant Colonel Anwar Latif Khan, Brigadier General Md Jahangir Alam, Lieutenant Colonel Sarwar Bin Kashem, and Lieutenant Colonel Saiful Islam Suman.
Three other arrested officers 鈥� Brigadier General Ahmed Tanvir Mazhar Siddique, Major General Sheikh Md Sarwar Hossain, and Brigadier General Mahbub Rahman Siddique 鈥� were produced together in the same courtroom separately in another enforced disappearance case.
Ten others, including Major General Kabir Ahmed, a former director of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and the Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Bureau, remain absconding.
Deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her former defence adviser and retired major general Tarique Ahmed Siddique, both absconding, made as principal accused in both the enforced disappearance cases.
Two additional arrested officers 鈥� Lieutenant Colonel Ridwanul Islam and Major Rifat Bin Alam Moon 鈥� who were serving in the Border Guard Bangladesh during the July 2024 mass uprising, were produced in a separate case over murders committed during the movement.
The court also ordered the publication of notices in two national newspapers, asking nine retired army officers and one serving officer to appear before the tribunal by November 20.
The accused army officers appeared calm in the courtroom dock during the proceedings.
Defence lawyer Sarwar Hossain sought bail for his clients and requested that future hearings be held online. The tribunal kept the bail petitions on file for consideration.
Sarwar later told reporters that the officers would be held in a sub-jail inside the Dhaka Cantonment.
