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In Bangladesh, Another Death Sentence Death Sentence for Bangladesh Lawmaker
(about 9 hours later)
NEW DELHI — Bangladesh’s war-crimes tribunal on Tuesday sentenced Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, an opposition lawmaker, to death for rape, mass murder and torture dating back to the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. NEW DELHI — Bangladesh’s war-crimes tribunal on Tuesday sentenced Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, an opposition lawmaker, to death for rape, mass murder and torture dating to the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
It was the seventh death sentence to be handed down by the tribunal. Virtually every major turn in the legal process has sparked riots, either by Islamist protesters or secular ones, and the authorities on Tuesday had beefed up security in the capital, Dhaka, and in Chittangong, Mr. Chowdhury’s native region. It was the seventh conviction handed down by the tribunal. Virtually every major turn in the legal process has sparked riots, either by Islamist or secularist protesters, and the authorities on Tuesday had increased security in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, and in Chittangong, Mr. Chowdhury’s native region.
Mr. Chowdhury, 64, is aligned with the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party, which is expected to make gains at parliamentary elections in January. Mr. Chowdhury, 64, is aligned with the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party, which is expected to make gains in parliamentary elections in January.
He was charged with killing 200 civilians and assisting Pakistan’s army in torture and mass murder during the nine-month conflict. He was charged with killing 200 civilians and assisting the Pakistan Army in torture and mass murder during the nine-month conflict.
The war crimes tribunal has underlined unresolved tensions over the 1971 war, in which Bangladesh, a largely Muslim country, broke away from Pakistan at the cost of an estimated 3 million lives. Human Rights Watch has criticized the tribunal, saying it was marred by “a strong judicial bias toward the prosecution.” The three-judge tribunal found him guilty of 9 of 23 charges, including trying “to wipe out the Hindu population as a religious group by launching a systematic attack on a large scale with the aid of the Pakistan Army.”
Opposition forces have dismissed the tribunals as politically motivated. Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party allied with the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party, has been barred by a Supreme Court ruling from participating in the January polls. Mr. Chowdhury, then a student at Dhaka University, was not aligned with any political party during the war, but his father used the family residence, Goods Hill, as a prison and interrogation center at that time.
As the judges were leaving the bench, Mr. Chowdhury stood in the courtroom and dismissed the verdict as politically driven, saying a leaked copy had been available on the Internet for days. “It came from the ministry,” he said. “Thanks to the Law Ministry.”
Mr. Chowdhury’s wife told reporters that the family would appeal the decision. “We will do whatever we need to do to show that this is a farce,” she said, according to The Associated Press.
The war crimes tribunal has shone a spotlight on unresolved tensions from the 1971 war, in which Bangladesh, a largely Muslim country, broke away from Pakistan at the cost of an estimated three million lives. Human Rights Watch has criticized the tribunal, saying it is marred by “a strong judicial bias toward the prosecution.”
Opposition forces have dismissed the tribunals as politically motivated. Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party allied with the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party, has been barred by a Supreme Court ruling from participating in the January elections.

Julfikar Ali Manik contributed reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh.