Bangladesh Supreme Court has sentenced a senior Islamist opposition leader to death for mass murder during the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.Abdul Quader Molla, 65, the fourth-highest-ranked leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, is the first politician to be found guilty by the country’s Supreme Court after it overturned an appeal to acquit him of all charges.
“The court enhanced his life sentence to the death penalty,” prosecutor Mohammad Ali said on Tuesday.
Lawyers said a five-strong Appellate Division bench threw away the defence appeal for acquittal of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Assistant Secretary General.
The defence lawyer Tajul Islam said: “We are 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.”
Jamaat-e-Islami has called for a 48-hour general strike to start on Wednesday. The original life sentence delivered in February triggered widespread protests by over the alleged leniency of the sentence.
Tens of thousands of secularists massed at a square in Dhaka for weeks, demanding the execution of Molla.
After the protests parliament changed the war crimes laws, allowing the prosecution to appeal against the verdict and seek the death penalty in the Supreme Court.
Bangladesh has been in upheaval since the current government set up two war crimes tribunals to try those suspected of links to excesses during the liberation war.
Jamaat sided with Pakistan during the liberation war, but denies any role in the crimes. Several of its top leaders are being tried for crimes during the war and four of them have already been sentenced to death for mass murder, rape and religious persecution
In August, Bangladesh’s High Court declared the registration of Jamaat-e-Islami illegal, banning it from contesting January’s general election.
Secular protesters have long demanded that Jamaat be banned from public office for its role in the 1971 war of independence, during which it opposed Bangladesh’s breakaway from Pakistan.
Islamists, in turn, also held rival demonstrations across the country, calling the sentence politically charged, and sparking violent clashes between police and supporters of Jamaat. About 150 people have been killed across the country in sporadic spells of violence.
On Tuesday, a five-member panel headed by Chief Justice M. Muzammel Hossain ruled that Mollah be put to death for his role during the war. The panel found him guilty of ordering the killing of a family of 4 during a Pakistani army crackdown in Dhaka in March 1971.
Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam said the verdict was final, with no option for another appeal through the courts. He said Mollah’s family can seek presidential clemency.
Defense counsel Abdur Razzaq said they were “stunned” by the decision. Hours after the verdict, Mollah’s party said it would enforce a 48-hour general strike beginning Wednesday across the country to denounce the ruling. According to reports activists of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing had torched a police car and smashed several cars in the southeastern city of Chittagong to protest the verdict. No injuries were reported.
Clashes between Jamaat-e-Islami activists and police have taken place also in capital, Dhaka, and in several other towns. Scores were injured in those clashes. In Dhaka, police detained at least five activists from the party when they clashed with security officials, said one report.
The ruling Awami League and its allies welcomed the verdict.
Mollah and his supporters say the case against him is politically motivated. Mollah’s party is an ally of the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, a rival of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina formed the special tribunal in 2010 to try war crimes suspects. Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the nine-month war.
Khaleda Zia has accused the government of using trials to weaken the opposition. The government denies the allegation and says it won power in 2008 with an election pledge to prosecute war crimes suspects. Several other top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami have been convicted in similar charges.
The government says the trials are being held at an international standard, but New York-based Human Rights Watch has raised questions about the impartiality of the tribunal.
The earlier sentence against Mollah led to protests across the country by his supporters as well as those who said the sentence was lenient. – Agencies
