Bangladesh’s highest court yesterday upheld the death sentence against a top Muslim leader for war crimes during the nation’s battle for independence, prompting his opposition party to call a general strike in protest.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed could now be hanged within months after the Bangladeshi Supreme Court dismissed his appeal against the sentence for the murder of scores of intellectuals during the 1971 conflict. The 67-year-old is one of about a dozen leaders of Bangladesh’s largest Muslim party, Jamaat-e-Islami, a key opposition group, convicted by a controversial war crimes tribunal set up by the secular government in 2010.
TIGHT SECURITY
The convictions have triggered the country’s deadliest violence since independence with about 500 people killed, mainly in clashes between Jamaat activists and police. Security was tight ahead of yesterday’s ruling, with heavily armed police and border guards surrounding the court in Dhaka and patrolling nearby streets.
However, widespread violence was unlikely following a recent crackdown against the opposition by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.
Jamaat, thousands of whose supporters have been arrested in the crackdown, called the strike for today, branding the trial of its general secretary “farcical.”
“Mojaheed is a victim of the government’s conspiracy,” Jamaat acting chief Moqbul Ahmed said in a statement.
Mojaheed was found guilty in 2013 of leading al-Badr _ a notorious pro-Pakistani militia that carried out “exterminations” of Bangladeshi intellectuals including top writers, journalists and professors toward the end of the nine-month war.
Prosecutors said Mojaheed now faces the gallows within months unless his case is reviewed by the same court or he is granted clemency by the president.
“Souls of the war martyrs can finally now rest in peace after today’s verdict,” prosecutor Mokhlesur Rahman Badal told reporters outside the court.
The court has swiftly dismissed previous reviews of two other senior Jamaat officials on death row, leading to their execution, the latest in April. Those leaders also declined to seek clemency from the president, saying they did not recognize Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid’s government.
When it became clear that Pakistan was losing the war, dozens of intellectuals were abducted from their homes and murdered in December 1971 in the most gruesome chapter of the conflict.
Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh on the outskirts of the capital.
NEW REVIEW?
Defense lawyers said Mojaheed’s name was not in the list of al-Badr commanders or activists that was published by the post-independence government.
“We’ll seek a review of the Supreme Court judgement,” lawyer Shishir Manir told reporters.
The ruling is a blow to the beleaguered opposition, thousands of whose leaders and supporters have been detained as part of the government’s crackdown in recent months.
The government has been attempting to end an opposition campaign to force Hasina to resign and call fresh elections. The campaign has left scores dead, mainly in fire bomb attacks by opposition activists.
The trials have divided the country, with the opposition and Jamaat branding them a sham aimed at eliminating their leaders rather than meting out justice. Secularists have demanded the execution of all those accused.
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