Eight war crimes convicts await final verdicts

FE Team | Published: June 21, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Eight more appeals of war crimes convicts against their death sentences for crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation, are awaiting at the Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court (SC) for final verdicts, reports BSS.
Hearing on the appeal of BNP standing committee member Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury started at the AD on June 1.
The convicts who are waiting for appeal hearing are: Motiur Rahman Nizami, Meer Kashem Ali, Mobarrak Hossain, Syed Mohammad Quasar, ATM Azharul Islam, Abdus Subhan and fugitive Engineer Abdul Jobbar.
Earlier on June 16, the AD of the SC upheld the death sentence against Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mujahid. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) earlier awarded death sentence to Mujahid.
Verdicts against 20 persons in 18 cases of crimes against humanity have been delivered in both the tribunals. In the last and 18th verdict, the tribunal sentenced Chapainawabganj Razakars Mahidur Rahman and Afsar Uddin Chutu to imprisonment till death.
Two Jamaat leaders Abdul Kader Molla and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman have so far been hanged for their crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971.
The first tribunal was formed on March 25, 2010, in line with Awami League election manifesto.
Sheikh Hasina's government set up International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) to bring those into justice, who played a barbaric role during "our great War of Liberation", siding with the Pakistani occupation forces.
Two years after formation of the first tribunal, the government on March 22, 2012, established another tribunal namely International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2. Both the tribunals under the ICTA (1973) are in operation under the same jurisdiction mentioned in section 3 of the ICTA (1973). The ICT-1 and the ICT-2 have separate rules of procedures.
The ICT-1 pronounced its first judgment on February 28, 2013, sentencing Jamaat's Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee to death. His sentence was later changed by the Appellate Division to imprisonment till death. Jamaat's leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was sentenced to death by the ICT-2 on May 9, 2013.