DHAKA: The defense testimony of Joj Mia, in the case of 21 August grenade attacks, has been deferred to Tuesday.

Speedy Trial Tribunal-1, setup in front of Dhaka Central Jail, scheduled Monday as the date of Joj Mia’s testimony by the defense lawyers.

Tribunal judge Shahed Nur Uddin deferred the date till Tuesday as the defense lawyers appealed to adjourn the testimony.

The defense lawyers said they would appeal to the High Court against the court order of dismissing their plea on the exclusion of Joj Mia’s statements.

They said as they did not get attested copy of the court order they could not appeal to the High Court. They, however, urged the tribunal to adjourn Joj Mia’s depositions.

Defense lawyers Abdus Sobhan Tarafdar, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Kutubuddin Chowdhury and Parvez Hossain stood in favor of the appeal.

State prosecutors Syed Rezauddin Rahman and Akram Uddin Shyamal stood against the appeal.

Jalal Ahmed Joj Mia gave his statements earlier on September 30. He was scheduled for cross examining at noon on the day but the defense lawyers appealed to adjourn the deposition.

After the hearing the court deferred Joj Mia’s cross examinations to October 13.

Moreover, Joj Mia was held in 2005 after the grenade attacks in 2004.

Central Investigation Department (CID), in 2008, submitted a charge-sheet against him.

Later, the court dismissed his name from the case and released him from jail in 2009.

A supplementary charge-sheet was submitted against 52 people. It includes Joj Mia, his mother and sister as witnesses.

BDST: 1511 HRS, OCT 13, 2014