Sadeq Khan
The country has gone through a punishing couple of days of hartal and violent disturbance, during and following the day when the “International Crimes Tribunal” of Bangladesh delivered its second judgment on February 5 against a political leader charged with “crimes against humanity” committed during the liberation war of 1971. The first judgment carrying death sentence to an absconding clergyman and TV anchor for religious talks, allegedly also a member of the same political party in 1971, was delivered on January 21.
The Tribunal is deceptive in nomenclature. It is neither based on international law, nor based on regular domestic Criminal Procedure Code. It is a hybrid national court, based on a Bangladeshi statute passed in 1973 and amended in 2009 and 2012, evidently “very late to begin the search for justice, for the accused as well as for victims.” It was given the qualifying name “international” to try the charges as war crimes not subject to statute of limitation, and the amendments relaxed the Evidence Act for the special trials allowing depositions of hearsay evidence.
Clamour for such trial was presumably politically engineered 21 years after liberation, when unexpected by many, BNP won general elections after the fall of dictator Ershad, and a “pro-Indian” political lobby felt the strong need to challenge the “pro-Islamic” drift of the polity, including the Awami League, by revival of secularism as the drive behind the “spirit of liberation war.” It was not until the advent of 2008 general election under a “friendly” emergency government that the Awami League put the agenda of re-enactment of war crimes trial in its election manifesto.
In implementation of that agenda, the original cases of crimes against humanity as listed in 1973 were not revived. Instead, a number of political leaders associated with Jamaat, the Islamist party that lent support to the-then single majority party BNP to claim power, were indicted in the mock-trial under a so-called people’s court. Out of that mock-trial list, 10 leading opposition politicians have been put into jail custody under trial. Of them, the first one sentenced on February 5 was Mr. Mollah.
The judgment and accompanying incidents of protest and violence obtained instant international exposure. On the air, the Voice of America broadcast: “A special court in Bangladesh has sentenced a senior Islamist opposition official to life in prison for his role during the country’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.
He is the first politician to be convicted by the controversial tribunal, which is trying those suspected of war crimes during the nine-month conflict that killed about 3 million people.
International rights groups have said the tribunal’s legal procedures fall short of international standards. And Islamists say the tribunal was set up to target the government’s political opponents.
Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami protested. There were reports of clashes with police following the verdict. The party already ordered a nationwide general strike that shut down much of the capital Tuesday. Last month, a popular Islamist televangelist, Abul Kalam Azad, was sentenced to death in absentia for murder and genocide.”
On television screen, the BBC telecast “A war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh has found a leader of the main Islamist party guilty of crimes against humanity during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
But the trial has sparked protests from supporters who accuse the government of pursuing a political vendetta.
Abdul Kader Mullah, 64, the assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty of five out of six charges, including murder.
The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan who was in the packed, heavily guarded court room, says Mullah’s face appeared grim as he listened attentively to the verdict for nearly an hour and a half.
As soon as the judges finished reading the judgement out, he shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is great’) and then cursed the judges and the government.
Mullah had been a loyal servant of the Jamaat-e-Islami since his days at Dhaka University and was a member of the party’s inner circle of decision-makers.
Mullah was accused in court of being behind a series of killings including some large-scale massacres in the Mirpur area of Dhaka, which earned him the nickname of ‘koshai’ or butcher of Mirpur.
Abdur Razzaq, the lead lawyer for the Jamaat leaders facing trial, has described the tribunal as ‘a witch hunt’.
‘We are but forced to accept the verdict. However, we will surely appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgement. Although the prosecution says that guilt has been proved, I consider this to be a perverse judgement. The prosecution has failed to prove any charge.’
Human rights groups have also said the tribunal falls short of international standards.”
The al-Jazeera reported: “A Bangladesh war-crimes tribunal has sentenced a senior leader of the country’s biggest Islamist party to life in prison, the second verdict in trials that have reopened wounds about the country’s independence war and sparked riots.
Activists of Mollah’s Jamaat-e-Islami party clashed with police in the capital, Dhaka, and other towns soon after the verdict.
One man was killed and dozens others injured when police opened fire at dozens of Jamaat supporters in Chittagong city, 216km southeast of Dhaka.
A home-made bomb killed another man late on Tuesday.
Qader Mollah made a V for victory sign while getting into a car after the ruling.
Abdur Razzaq, defence lawyer, said he will appeal the verdict, while Rafiqul Islam Khan, Jamaat’s acting secretary-general, denounced the decision as dictated by authorities.
Jamaat is demanding that the government dissolve the tribunal and release all of its leaders facing trial, including the party’s former and current chiefs and their top lieutenants.”
For the print media, AFP reported: “A man was burned to death as riots rocked Dhaka ahead of a verdict Tuesday against a senior Islamist opposition official accused of genocide during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Jamaat announced a nationwide strike on Tuesday (February 5) after the tribunal on Monday announced the verdict would be delivered the following day. Jamaat warned it would resist at any cost a ‘government blueprint’ to execute its leaders.
Police said a young banker was burnt to death and four people injured on Monday evening after a bus was torched by suspected Jamaat activists.
Police clashed with protesters early on Tuesday near Old Dhaka.
Security was tight in the capital with more than 10,000 policemen on patrol. Schools were closed and many shops and businesses shuttered. Motorways linking Dhaka with other cities were largely empty.
Protests against the war crime trials turned deadly last Thursday, leaving three people dead in the north-western city of Bogra.
The Tribunal, a domestic body with no international oversight, was created by the country’s secular government in 2010. It has been tainted by allegations it is politically motivated, targeting only senior opposition officials.
Ten other opposition figures—including the entire leadership of Jamaat and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — stand accused of war crimes.
Both Jamaat and the main opposition BNP have labelled the cases ‘show trials’ aimed at barring the leaders from upcoming polls. International rights groups have questioned the proceedings.”
Reuters wrote: “Activists of Mollah’s Jamaat-e-Islami party skirmished with police in the capital, Dhaka, and other towns after the verdict. Police opened fire and used truncheons during demonstrations in the south-eastern city of Chittagong and one person was killed, police and witnesses said.
‘We are not happy with the verdict and the merit of the judgment is not clear to us,’ said Mohammad Ali, a state prosecutor. ‘We wanted his death and are surprised by the lesser punishment handed out by the tribunal.’
Quader Mollah made a ‘V’ for victory sign while getting into a car after the verdict.
Jamaat’s acting Secretary-General Rafiqul Islam Khan, denounced the verdict as dictated by authorities.
‘It is a state-managed judgment,’ he said in a statement. ‘The tribunal pronounced the verdict as per the instruction of the government.’
The party is demanding that the government dissolve the tribunal and release all of its leaders facing trial, including the party’s former and current chiefs and their top lieutenants.
The Jamaat-e-Islami has vowed to paralyze the country in protest against a tribunal that it says is politically biased.
Shops and businesses were shut and the streets were mostly empty in the capital and elsewhere as the Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a national strike against the verdict. The party called for the strike to extend into Wednesday (February 6).
Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina’s arch rival and leader of the BNP, has called the tribunal a ‘farce’.
Six people have been killed in recent weeks in violence related to the trials. About 150 people have been injured and a similar number arrested.”
A news analysis in the Wall Street Journal summed up international observation of the trial as follows: “On Tuesday (February 5), the court found Abdul Quader Molla, a leader of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, guilty on five counts, including mass murder. Mr. Molla had been accused of leading a pro-Pakistan militia that carried out targeted killings in Dhaka. He had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
The decision was the court’s second after it sentenced Abul Kalam Azad, a former Jamaat-e-Islami politician, to death last month for crimes including murder, rape and arson.
Mr. Azad, who is believed to have fled the country to avoid the war crimes trials, was sentenced in absentia. Mr. Molla is the first party leader in custody in Bangladesh to be found guilty.
Mohammad Ali, the lead prosecutor, said the state was dissatisfied with the verdict: ‘All charges against the accused have been proved and we had expected capital punishment.’
Sajjad Ali Chowdhury, a lawyer for Mr. Molla, said the defence would appeal the decision. The tribunal severely curtailed our right to call witnesses. ‘We were allowed to call only six although we had asked to call twelve. Justice has not been served in this case.’
The verdict is likely to further intensify street protests from Jamaat-e-Islami supporters who say the government is using the trials as a means to punish political adversaries. All of the 10 people on trial for war crimes are opposition politicians.
Protests have built since the tribunal on Jan. 21 sentenced Mr. Azad to death. Rights groups criticized the failure of Mr. Azad’s state-appointed lawyer to summon any witnesses in his defense.
The Jamaat-e-Islami called for a nationwide strike on Tuesday ahead of the verdict against Mr. Molla, who holds the post of assistant secretary general in the party. Police said they shot and killed two Jamaat-e-Islami activists last week in fighting across the country. The party said four of its members were shot dead by police. Over the weekend, 12 people, including five policemen, were injured after supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, clashed with police in a suburb of Dhaka.
Shafiqul Islam Masud, a member of the Majlis-e-Shura, or central council that runs the Jamaat-e-Islami, claimed the government was unfairly targeting his organization:
‘We do not accept this trial, which we’re afraid is nothing but judicial killing with a political motive. The Jamaat-e-Islami has 10 million members and we will exercise our right to protest. We will lay down our lives on the street before we let this government punish our leaders for crimes they did not commit.’
Monirul Islam, a police spokesman, denied opposition activists were being unfairly targeted.
The opposition BNP, led by Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, has stopped short of calling for the trials to be stopped, but has accused Ms. Hasina and her Awami League-led government of using war crimes as a pretext to target opposition politicians.
Ms. Hasina has denied politicizing the war crimes tribunal, a process she said was ‘necessary to rid the nation of stigma.’
Protests could intensify as other senior leaders’ trials conclude. A verdict is expected soon in the case of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, another Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
Sam Zarifi, Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists, a Geneva-based legal advocacy, said the current criticism of the war crimes process could lead to deeper divisions in Bangladesh rather than healing wounds from the 1971 civil war. The war crimes trials face “serious problems that undermine its legitimacy. The trials are biased on a series of conversations that appear to be between the former chairman of the tribunal, Mohammed Nizamul Huq, and a Bangladeshi human-rights lawyer based in Brussels, Ahmed Ziauddin.
The Wall Street Journal in December reviewed copies of transcripts of six conversations purported to be between Mr. Huq and Mr. Ziauddin carried out over Skype between August and October. Mr. Huq resigned from the tribunal in December but remains a Supreme Court judge.
The transcripts suggest that Mr. Ziauddin, despite having no formal position in the war-crimes tribunal, has played a key role in the process, including helping to structure judgments and coordinating with the prosecution. The transcripts show the two men commenting about pressure from the government for quick judgments. In one conversation, in a recorded file labelled Sept. 10, the person identified as Mr. Ziauddin tells the person thought to be Mr. Huq that he is working on the ‘sketch’ of how a judgment in the case of Mr. Sayeedi might look.
Lawyers for four of the accused, including Mr. Molla and Mr. Sayeedi, filed for retrials after the tapes came to light but the tribunal rejected the petitions.”
The journal also commented on the social-economic of the trial and accompanying unrest as follows: “Muhammad Musa, a political analyst and former newspaper editor, said there was a risk that street violence might spiral out of control and threaten Bangladesh’s fledgling democracy.
Instability in Bangladesh also is being fanned by other factors. The opposition is calling for the government to reinstate a system under which a non-partisan caretaker administration oversees elections. Ms. Hasina’s government scrapped this system two years ago. Protests over the issue have regularly turned violent, with clashes between police and demonstrators.
Workers’ protests over safety issues at Bangladeshi factories that churn out clothes for Western brands also have added to the sense of chaos. In November, a fire at a factory outside Dhaka killed 112 people, the country’s worst garment-industry accident.”
The correspondent of the Wall Street Journal did not mention other deep scars of injury to the socio-economic fabric of the country, like Hallmark scam, Padma Bridge fiasco, and so on from which the ruling party desperately wants to distract public attention. In the aftermath of the verdict, world attention has also been digressed from Bangladesh to other news-making hot spots. While the Jamaat agitators in group or individuals during to picket openly were being tear gassed, fired upon rounded up by the police and para-military personnel deployed throughout the country, and in the capital and some other cities groups of “lynching” crowd were allowed to assemble in city centres, and chant for death penalty, in apparent defiance of the government that was supposedly seeking peace with Jamaat by “advising” the Tribunal to accord milder sentence. This “lynching crowd” grew bigger and bigger and continued till might fall on the 6th through the hartal days.
In Dhaka, “sponsored” arrivals overwhelmed the road-junction in Shahbag, as well as TV news and talk-shows through 7 February. “Blogger and On-line”, one of the enthusiast groups in the Shahbag crowd, named the place “Shahbag Square” emulating Tahrir Square of Cairo. The enthusiast, whose aim seems to be that of holding another mock trial in public to symbolically condemn all the accused under trial to the gallows, perhaps forget that the end result of Cairo’s Tahrir Square was the election to power of Muslim Brotherhood, which had grassroots connection and support, and not of the “bloggers” who trumpeted secular slogans.
Source: Holiday
