Off the wire
• Roundup: Criminal lawsuit lodged in Thai supreme court against Yingluck  • Across China: New Year celebration in China's quake zone  • DPRK says to launch anti-graft campaign within ruling party  • China Focus: Tibetans rejoice at twin New Year celebration  • Myanmar-India bilateral trade expected to reach 10 bln USD by 2020  • Interview: China's economic transformation heading to right direction: ex-Australian PM  • Chinese stock investors upbeat on market after holidays  • Fiji ready to help UAE establish diplomatic presence in Suva  • Prosecutors investigate record numbers for bribery  • Fewer firework accidents in Beijing this New Year  
You are here: 　 Home

Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal issues death warrant for opposition leader

Xinhua, February 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal has issued a warrant of execution for Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman condemned to death for crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 issued the warrant Thursday afternoon after receiving the full text of the Supreme Court (SC) verdict that upheld the death penalty of Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, assistant secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat, for his crimes against humanity in 1971.

The apex court Wednesday released the full verdict on Kamaruzzaman's appeal after all the four judges, who had delivered the verdict on Nov. 3 last year by a majority decision, signed the 577-page judgment.

Kamaruzzaman will have 15 days to file a review petition with the Supreme Court to know the final say on its verdict that upheld his death penalty for war crimes, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists Wednesday.

Kamaruzzaman was indicted in June 2012 with seven charges of crimes against humanity including looting, mass killings, arson, rape and forcefully converting people into Muslims during the war.

The ICT-2 found the Jamaat leader guilty of collaborating with Pakistani forces and committing war crimes including mass killings.

Bangladesh on Dec. 12, 2013 executed Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla, convicted of war crimes.

The death sentence of the war crimes accused Molla, assistant secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party, was executed hours after the Appellate Division dismissed his plea to review the SC verdict that confirmed the capital punishment on Sept. 17 in 2013.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said about 3 million people were killed in the war although independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died.

After returning to power in January 2009, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, established the first tribunal in March 2010, almost 40 years after the 1971 fight for independence from Pakistan, to castigate those who committed crimes against humanity during the nine-month war.

Apart from Jamaat, ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the country's largest opposition party, has also dismissed the court as a government "show trial" and said it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations.

But the ruling Bangladesh Awami League party denied the calls of BNP and Jamaat, saying they are creating anarchic situation in the name of political programs aimed at foiling ongoing war crimes trial. Endi