Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami’s conviction in the 10-truck arms haul cases is ‘politically motivated’, his party stated on Thurday.
Nizami along with former minister Lutfozzaman Babar was awarded death sentence along with 12 others for smuggling arms into Chittagong in 2004.
“Today’s verdict is another move by the government to destroy Bangladesh’s judicial system by conducting farcical trials,” Jamaat said in a statement on Thursday.Ten trucks of weapons and ammunition were seized from a state-owned jetty in April 2, 2004, during Nizami’s tenure as Minister of Industries.
Investigation now proves that the massive weapons consignment, ranging from AK-47s to rocket launchers, was being smuggled to Assamese rebel group Ulfa through Bangladesh, with the aid of members forming the top echelon of the then BNP-Jamaat coalition government.
Jamaat’s acting chief Mokbul Ahmad in the statement said, “The verdict is only a part of the government’s plan to kill patriotic political leaders so that a vacuum is created in the country.”
Nizami, who headed Islami Chhatra Shangha in 1971, the Jamaat’s the then student front, also stands accused of war crimes.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 finished hearing Nizami’s case in November last year and is expected to deliver the verdict any day.
Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla, who had gained notoriety as the Butcher of Mirpur, was executed last year for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
Nizami was not named in the FIR for the arms haul cases, Mokbul said. The first charge-sheet in the case, submitted on Jun 11, 2004, also did not name him as an accused.
Recording of testimonies in these cases began in 2005 but a plea for an extended probe was made during the last caretaker government’s tenure, an appeal the court granted.
Jamaat’s statement read, “Matiur Rahman Nizami was accused in the charge-sheet submitted in Jun 26, 2011 after an extended investigation into the two cases at the behest of the government, which wanted political revenge.”
“It is unprecedented the way the so-called smugglers were sentenced to death in a verdict ordered by the government. We are sad, shocked and astounded by the verdict.”
The acting Jamaat chief said they would politically and legally resist the government’s ‘conspiracies’ to deny justice to Nizami. – bdnews24.com
