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Roundup: Bangladesh court defers hearing of two death-row war criminals

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's apex court Monday deferred to Nov. 17 the hearing on two death-row war criminals' final review petitions.

A four-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha ordered the postponement as the counsel of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), sought further time for preparation of the hearing.

The apex court bench also rejected Chowdhury's petition for deposition by nine witnesses, including five Pakistani nationals, during the hearing of review of his death sentence.

The opposition leaders on Oct. 14 filed final review petitions with the Supreme Court against its verdict that upheld their death sentences for war crimes in 1971.

In the petitions both Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury made pleas to the apex court to scrap their convictions.

On Oct. 1 this year Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal issued two death warrants of executions for the two opposition leaders for crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War.

After returning to power in January 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh 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.

Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, a Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party leader convicted of war crimes, was executed in April, the second execution for crimes against humanity committed during the country 's war of independence in 1971.

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

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.

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 9-month war. Endit