Bangladesh: Jamat-e-Islami senior leader gets death penalty Dhaka,

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Bangladesh’s highest court on Tuesday sentenced to death a leader of the main Jamat-e-Islami, convicted of crimes against humanity during the war in 1971. Abdul Kader Mullah of Jamaat-e-Islami, who denied all the charges, was given a life sentence in February. His sentence was increased to death by the Supreme Court as he appealed against his conviction. Official estimates say more than three million people were allegedly killed in the war. His trial in February sparked the protests both from supporters who accuse the government of pursuing a political vendetta and those who saw the prison sentence as lenient. The Assistant Secretary General of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Kader Mullah, 65 years, was earlier this year was found guilty of a war crimes tribunal of five out of six charges, including murders. He was accused of being behind a series of killings including large-scale massacres in the Mirpur area of Dhaka that earned him the nickname of “koshai” or a butcher of the Mirpur, and made him one of the more feared Jamaat leaders.

Prosecutor Ziad Al Malum said that the decision to raise the sentence was approved by four to one at the court. Defence lawyer Tajul Islam told the media that he was “stunned” by the verdict. “This is the first time in South Asian judicial history that a trial court sentence has been enhanced by a Supreme Court,” he said.
The special tribunal was set up in 2010 by the current Bangladeshi Government to dispense with those accused that were collaborating with the Pakistani forces who sought to stop East Pakistan (as Bangladesh was then) from becoming a sovereign country.

2 COMMENTS

  1. This shows that Bangladesh judicial system is free from any religious interference or high ups. There are many in our own country who are slaughtering their own people but are considered untouchables.

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