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Islamist party member in Bangladesh sentenced to death for 1971 war crimes | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A special tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced to death a senior member of the country’s largest Islamist party. It is the second capital sentence in a week for atrocities committed during the 1971 independence war against Pakistan. | |
After the judge read the sentence to a packed courtroom in Dhaka on Sunday, Mir Quasem Ali protested, calling the witnesses who testified against him “fake”. The 62-year-old is a member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s highest policy-making body and considered to be one of the party’s top financiers. | |
Last week the court sentenced to death the party’s leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, for the 1971 war crimes. Another senior leader has already been hanged. | Last week the court sentenced to death the party’s leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, for the 1971 war crimes. Another senior leader has already been hanged. |
In protest the Jamaat-e-Islami called a nationwide general strike on Sunday, though no violence was reported. The court’s previous verdicts have triggered street violence. | |
Bangladesh accuses Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators of killing three million people during the nine-month war. About 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people forced to flee to refugee camps in neighbouring India. | |
The tribunal found Ali guilty on eight charges, two of which carried a death sentence, including the abduction and murder of a young man in a torture cell. Ali was also sentenced to 72 years in prison on the other charges. His lawyers said they would appeal. | |
Since it was set up in 2010, the tribunal has passed 12 verdicts against mostly senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, which had openly campaigned against independence but denied committing atrocities. | |
Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has called the trials a long overdue effort to obtain justice for war crimes, four decades after Bangladesh split from Pakistan. But critics say she is using the tribunals to weaken the country’s opposition parties. |
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