Bangladeshi tribunal targets Jamaat-e-Islami leaders
Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal issued its first arrest warrants on Monday, a court official said.
DHAKA:
Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal, probing into the 1971 war, issued its first arrest warrants on Monday, a court official said.
The warrants targeted four senior leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, who are accused of trying to prevent Bangladesh from declaring independence.
“The International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants against four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders over charges of war crimes,” court registrar Shahinul Islam told AFP after the first hearing of the tribunal on Monday.
The tribunal was set up in March in response to 1971 war in which, the Bangladesh government estimates, three million lives were lost.
“We have gathered significant evidence that these four Jamaat leaders were involved in war crimes during the 1971 liberation war,” prosecutor Abdur Rahman Howlader, told AFP.
“We sought their arrest for murder, genocide, rape, arson, looting and crimes against humanity. We have requested the accused not receive bail as they may flee the country,” he added.
All of the accused -- the head of Jamaat, Motiur Rahman Nizami, the party’s secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and two other senior leaders, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah -- are already in custody.
Nizami was arrested on June 29 on the little-used charge of “offending public religious sentiment”, while the other leaders were arrested in early July for allegedly instigating violence during a June 27 nationwide strike.
Jamaat denies any of its leaders were involved in war crimes and has dismissed possible war crimes prosecutions as a political witch-hunt.
M A Hasan, the head of the privately funded War Crimes Fact-Finding Committee, regretted that the court would not try some 300 Pakistani army officers whom his organisation has identified as war crime perpetrators.
The government has previously said Pakistani generals and army officers will not be put on trial, only the Bangladeshis who formed auxiliary forces to aid the Pakistani army. The next tribunal hearing will be on August 2.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2010.
Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal, probing into the 1971 war, issued its first arrest warrants on Monday, a court official said.
The warrants targeted four senior leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, who are accused of trying to prevent Bangladesh from declaring independence.
“The International Crimes Tribunal issued arrest warrants against four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders over charges of war crimes,” court registrar Shahinul Islam told AFP after the first hearing of the tribunal on Monday.
The tribunal was set up in March in response to 1971 war in which, the Bangladesh government estimates, three million lives were lost.
“We have gathered significant evidence that these four Jamaat leaders were involved in war crimes during the 1971 liberation war,” prosecutor Abdur Rahman Howlader, told AFP.
“We sought their arrest for murder, genocide, rape, arson, looting and crimes against humanity. We have requested the accused not receive bail as they may flee the country,” he added.
All of the accused -- the head of Jamaat, Motiur Rahman Nizami, the party’s secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and two other senior leaders, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah -- are already in custody.
Nizami was arrested on June 29 on the little-used charge of “offending public religious sentiment”, while the other leaders were arrested in early July for allegedly instigating violence during a June 27 nationwide strike.
Jamaat denies any of its leaders were involved in war crimes and has dismissed possible war crimes prosecutions as a political witch-hunt.
M A Hasan, the head of the privately funded War Crimes Fact-Finding Committee, regretted that the court would not try some 300 Pakistani army officers whom his organisation has identified as war crime perpetrators.
The government has previously said Pakistani generals and army officers will not be put on trial, only the Bangladeshis who formed auxiliary forces to aid the Pakistani army. The next tribunal hearing will be on August 2.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2010.