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Ex-lawmaker sentenced to jail until death for war crimes in Bangladesh

Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

An ex-lawmaker of Bangladesh Parliament was on Tuesday sentenced to jail until death for war crimes during the country's Liberation War in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 pronounced the verdict in capital Dhaka Tuesday afternoon, saying former parliament member Abdul Jabbar will "die behind bars."

"He deserves death but his punishment has been mitigated considering his old age," said the ICT-1 Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim while delivering the verdict.

Jabbar has been on the run since 2009 as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government took an initiative to establish the first tribunal to castigate war criminals.

He was indicted in August last year with 5 charges of crimes against humanity, including looting, mass killings, arson and rape.

The 74-year-old has also been awarded imprisonment until death as all the five charges were proved beyond doubt.

Before Bangladesh's war of independence he was engaged in politics of Muslim League, which actively opposed the formation of an independent Bangladesh and was thus banned in the country after its independence in 1971.

After independence, Jabbar shifted to HM Ershad's Jatiya Party and became a lawmaker in 1986.

Apart from Jabbar, a number of leaders of Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party are also facing war crime trials.

Bangladesh on Dec. 12, 2013 executed Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla, convicted of war crimes in 1971.

Both BNP and Jamaat have 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. Endi