Bangladesh: opposition leader gets death sentence
Submitted by Jurist on Thu, 11/13/2014 - 17:19
The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal on Nov. 13 convicted (PDF) opposition politician MA Zahid Hossain Khokon to death for his role in killings and other war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The Tribunal found the accused guilty of the offenses of "murder, torture, deportation, rape, confinement, abduction and other inhumane acts" within the crimes against humanity sections of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973. Khokon, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was tried in absentia and is currently a fugitive believed to be residing with his family in Sweden.
From Jurist, Nov. 13. used with permission.
Bangladesh man sentenced to death for 1971 war crimes
A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Nov. 24 sentenced a man to death for his role in killings during Bangladesh's 1971 independence war. Mobarak Hossain was a former commander of a collaborators' group of the Pakistani army. Hossian was convicted of killing 33 civilians in the eastern Bangladeshi district of Brahmanbaria. He was a member of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
Two special tribunals were set up in 2010 for war crime convictions. Since then, they have convicted 13 people, most of whom were senior leaders of JI. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh earlier this month upheld the death sentence of Islamist politician Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, who was assistant secretary general of the JI party.
Activists have long called for the banning of the country's largest Islamist party. In March Bangladeshi investigators moved the government to ban the Islamist party after evidence emerged indicating that JI formed armed groups to assist Pakistani forces in the commission of atrocities.
From Jurist, Nov. 24. Used with permission.