A top leader of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to death on Wednesday by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for committing “crimes against humanity” and unleashing ruthless militias on unarmed intellectuals during the country’s 1971 liberation war.
65-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was given death penalty by the International Crimes Tribunal-2, two days after JI’s 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam was sentenced to 90 years in jail.
“He will be hanged by neck till he is dead,” Justice Obaidul Hassan, the chairman of the three-member panel of judges pronounced, reading out the operative part of the verdict in a jam-packed courtroom here.
Mojaheed, initially looked expressionless as he was brought to the dock but appeared shocked as the judge handed down the punishments.
Hassan said five of the seven charges brought against Mojaheed were “proved beyond doubt” and the court sentenced him to death on two counts for personal involvement in the killings of several pro-liberation activists.
Mojaheed was the second in command of the infamous Al Badr militia forces, manned mainly by Jamaat’s then student wing.
Al Badr had systematically killed leading Bengali intelligentsia during the liberation war and allegedly acted as an elite auxiliary force of the Pakistani troops.
Mojaheed was found guilty of “superior responsibility” and “criminal liability” of the atrocities.
The judgement said that it found valid the allegations that Mojaheed was personally involved in systematic persecution of the Hindu community.
It found the complaints about Mojaheed commanding a systematic campaign to kill leading Bengali intelligentsia to be true.
The tribunal said, Mojaheed ordered the murder of leading journalist Sirajuddin Hossain and allegedly instigated a Pakistani military officer to torture and kill several prominent figures, including famous musician Altaf Mahmud and freedom fighter Rumi, “before the (Pakistani) president declared an amnesty”.
Security forces whisked Mojaheed away from the dock after the verdict was delivered, even as he screamed that he was “victimised” for his role in the Islamic movement.
Reacting to the verdict, JI called for a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest against Mojaheed’s death penalty.
Mojaheed was the sixth Jamaat-e-Islami politician to be convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal since the trial of war crimes suspects, mostly belonging to the Islamist group, began three years ago.
Before, Azam was sentenced to 90 years in jail on July 15, four other Jamaat leaders have been convicted.
In the first verdict of the tribunal in January, former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad was sentenced to death on similar charges. Another Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in February for atrocities during the war. In late February, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the party, was sentenced to death for committing “crimes against humanity” during the 1971 war. On May 9, the tribunal handed down death penalty to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart Muhammad Quamaruzzaman for “crimes against humanity” he committed during the war.
The defence lawyers, however, in their arguments had claimed that the prosecution failed to prove the charges brought against Mojaheed.
Under an amended law both the sides could now challenge the tribunal verdict before the apex Supreme Court within 30 days after the pronouncement and the apex court was expected to dispose the cases in the subsequent 60 days.
“One must file the appeal in 30 days, but the disposal of the cases in next days is not a mandatory provision,” Syed Amirul Islam, a prosecution lawyer of the war crimes cases, said.