Roundup: Bangladesh supreme court paves way for execution of key opposition leaders

Bangladesh's highest court has rejected appeals from two opposition leaders against their death sentences for crimes against humanity during the country's war of independence in 1971.

A four-member Appellate Division bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, on Wednesday dismissed the review petitions of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

This was the first time that the apex court delivered verdict on war crimes charges against a member of the parliament and leader of the BNP headed by ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia, a rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Appellate Division bench read the verdict at about 11:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) at a jam-packed court room in the presence of a huge crowd of people particularly journalists and lawyers amid tight security.

Security has been beefed up in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country after the verdict against Chowdhury, 66, who is a member of BNP's Standing Committee, the highest policy-making body of the party.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists shortly after the apex court ruling that there was no legal bar to execute condemned killers unless they sought presidential pardon.

As per procedure, sources said death-row war criminals would be asked whether they would seek presidential clemency.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, principal counsel for both Mujahid and Chowdhury, told journalists that they would seek a chance to authorities of the Dhaka Central Jail, where they had been kept, to meet their clients.

The opposition leaders filed final review petitions with the Supreme Court on Oct. 14 against its verdicts that upheld their death sentences.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 in August 2013 meted out death sentence to Mujahid, 67, also a cabinet member in the government of former prime minister Khaleda Zia in 2001-2006.

He lodged his appeal with the Supreme Court on Aug. 11 the same year, seeking acquittal of all the charges against him.

The indictment order said Mujahid was a key organizer of the Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of then Pakistani army which killed Bangalee intellectuals at the end of the Liberation War in 1971. Mujahid's Jamaat party had pleaded his innocence, saying he was another victim of political vendetta.

On the other hand, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 on Oct. 1, 2013, issued a death penalty against Chowdhury for war crimes, including mass killings during the country's war of independence 42 years ago.

In April last year, Chowdhury was indicted on the charges of genocide, murders, abductions, torture in confinement, looting, arson attacks and complicity in other atrocities committed in 1971.

Son of the then Convention Muslim League party leader Fazlul Qader Chowdhury, Chowdhury was elected MP from different constituencies in Chittagong since 1979.

Chowdhury's father, who actively opposed the creation of independent Bangladesh and allegedly committed war crimes, died in jail amid his trial.

Chowdhury was a lawmaker and minister in General Hussain Mohammad Ershad's government in the 1980s. He quit former military strongman's Jatiya Party in the 1980s and founded his own party.

In 1996, Chowdhury and his National Democratic Party took part in then opposition Bangladesh Awami League party-led movement against then BNP government that saw the introduction of non-party caretaker government for holding parliamentary polls.

Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government "show trial" and said it was a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations.

After returning to power in January 2009, Prime Minister 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 1971 war.

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

Muslim-majority Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971. The government of Prime Minister Hasina said about 3 million people were killed in the 9-month war. Enditem