Bangladesh’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected final appeals from two opposition leaders against death sentences for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence, rulings that are likely to spark protests by their supporters.
Bangladesh has seen a rise in Muslim violence in recent months, with two foreigners and four secular writers and a publisher killed this year.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, 67, secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of five charges, including torture and the murders of intellectuals and minority Hindus while he commanded Al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, during the war to break away from Pakistan.
Photo: AFP
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, 66, a former legislator with former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was convicted in October 2013 on charges of genocide, religious persecution, abduction and torture during the war.
“The entire nation is happy with the verdicts,” Bangladeshi Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters outside the packed court amid tight security.
The rulings mean the two could be hanged at any time unless they seek mercy from the president.
Mujahid, who served as social welfare minister from 2001 to 2006 under Khaleda, would be the first former minister and the third to be hanged, while Chowdhury would be the first BNP leader to go to the gallows.
“It is up to them whether they want to seek mercy or not,” defense counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told reporters.
Just a few hours before the rulings were announced, an Italian priest was wounded in the latest attack on foreigners in Bangladesh.
The assault on the 60-year-old man, identified as Father Pero, took place in Dinajpur District, 414km north of Dhaka, where he has been carrying out missionary work and medical services among the poor for the last 10 years.
The victim was stabbed in the back of the neck and was taken to a hospital in Dianjpur town, according to Abdul Khaleque, the officer in charge of Dinajpur Sadar police station.
Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the killings of an Italian aid worker in September and a Japanese man early last month, but the government has rejected the claim and blamed the growing violence on its domestic political opponents.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened an inquiry into crimes committed during the war in 2010, paving the way for prosecutions by a war crimes tribunal that Muslims have denounced as part of a politically motivated campaign aimed at hurting Jamaat-e-Islami’s leadership.
Two Jamaat leaders have been executed, one in December 2013 and another in April. They declined to seek clemency from the president.
US lawmakers and international human rights groups say the tribunal’s procedures fall short of international standards.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, set up by the US Congress, has expressed “serious concerns” over the death penalties.
No Peace Without Justice, a non-profit organization based in Italy, has called the tribunal’s proceedings “a weapon of politically influenced revenge whose real aim is to target the political opposition.”
The government denies the accusations.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese