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Bangladesh orders execution for death row war criminal Islamist party leader Mir Quasem Ali

Xinhua, September 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh on Saturday ordered to execute death row war criminal Mir Quasem Ali as the Islamist party leader chose not to seek presidential pardon.

Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told journalists on Saturday evening that "The order for his execution has been given as he had not asked for presidential mercy."

Shortly after this formal announcement, family members walked into the Kashimpur Jail on the outskirts of capital Dhaka to meet Ali for the last time as authorities completed preparations to hang the war criminal any time.

Security has been beefed up in and around the jail, where 64-year old Ali has been kept.

Ali, well known as a key financier of Jamaat, is among the top Jamaat leaders who have been tried in two war crimes tribunals which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian's Bangladesh Awami League-led government formed in 2010 to bring the perpetrators of 1971 to book.

Four Jamaat-e-Islami party leaders -- Motiur Rahman Nizami, Abdul Quader Molla, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid -- have already been executed for 1971 war crimes.

Apart from them, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salaudin Quader Chowdhury was executed on Nov. 22 last year.

Both BNP and Jamaat have described the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Endit