The key Jamaat financier led the group to commit crimes at Chittagong’s Daleem Hotel – a death factory
The International Crimes Tribunal 2 yesterday awarded death sentence to notorious war criminal of 1971 Mir Quasem Ali, who has been playing a key role in recent years to foil the initiative of trying war crimes suspects by spending a large amount of money at home and abroad.
The tribunal convicted Quasem for his notorious role as a commander of al-Badr force (a para militia killing squad) in Chittagong where he had committed crimes against humanity during the War of Independence against the Pakistani occupation force.
Quasem, the 62-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami leader, has been found guilty of murder, abduction, and of confining and torturing non-combatants and freedom fighters at an al-Badr camp set up at Daleem Hotel in Chittagong City.
“The al-Badr camp at Daleem Hotel [in Andorkilla area] was a ‘criminal enterprise’ of which accused Mir Quasem Ali was a ‘boss,’” says the verdict pronounced by the three-member tribunal headed by Justice Obaidul Hassan.
“Mir Quasem Ali had been in steering and guiding position of al-Badr force headquartered at Daleem Hotel which was a ‘death-factory’ indeed.”
The tribunal found him guilty of systematic form of killing and torturing and also liable for the criminal role of civilian superior responsibility.
Quasem instead of preventing the criminal acts by al-Badr men, on whom he had effective control, involved himself in the system and protracted brutality caused to the detainees at the camp, the verdict says.
Quasem “was an indispensable cog in the ‘murdering machinery’ implanted at Daleem Hotel.”
Fourteen charges were brought against the al-Badr leader by the
prosecution in 2012 for committing crimes during the nine-month-long bloody war.
The three-member tribunal – consisting Chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan, and members Justice Md Mozibur Rahman and Justice Shahinur Islam – unanimously found Quasem guilty on nine charges. On another charge, Quasem has been convicted by the majority opinion of Justice Obaidul and Justice Shaninur; Justice Moibur acquitted the top Jamaat financier on that charge.
But the judges acquitted Quasem unanimously from four other charges as the prosecution did not bring any witness against two charges and failed to prove the two others.
Two of the 10 proven charges are related to murdering people in which the tribunal awarded Quasem death sentence. On the other eight charges, he has been awarded jail for different terms – from lowest seven years to highest 20 years; but he will have to serve the terms concurrently.
All these sentences will, however, merge with the death sentence if “he be hanged by the neck till he is dead” after confirmation of the capital punishment by the Supreme Court.
Quasem’s lawyers said they would appeal against the verdict with the apex court.
Just after completion of delivering the verdict, Quasem stood up shouting: “False incidents, false witnesses, dictated verdict. Truth will win, lies will be defeated…soon, soon.”
Police took him to the lock-up of the tribunal. While getting on the prison van, he showed the photojournalists a victory sign.
The infamous al-Badr force was formed by Jamaat’s then student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha (now Islami Chhatra Shibir) to orchestrate systematic killings of pro-liberation people.
Quasem was the president of Chhatra Sangha’s Chittagong City unit until November 1971 and then was elevated as the general secretary of the East Pakistan unit.
Jamaat and its student wing Chhatra Sangha both functioned as criminal organisations, the tribunal earlier said in some other verdicts.
Quasem in the past decades has also become the steerer of Jamaat’s financial ventures that are considered as the lifeline of the anti-liberation communal party.
Before his arrest in June 2012, Quasem, on behalf of his party, started campaigning abroad in exchange for money against the war crimes trial initiative taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in 2010. It is evident that Quasem paid millions of dollars to a US lobbyist firm to make the trials controversial.
After Quasem’s arrest, evidence was found that his brother Mir Masum Ali and convicted war criminal and Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami’s son Dr Naqibur Rahman paid top lobbyist firms to work against the war crimes trials.
There has been widespread discussion among cross-sections of people since long that Quasem and his party were spending a large amount of money in the country to foil the war crimes trial and save Jamaat leaders facing trial.
On April 28 last year, then law minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament that Jamaat had signed an agreement with a US lobbyist firm to make the trial of war criminals “controversial.”
He said Quasem had paid $25m for this purpose while claiming that the government had copies of the receipts and the agreement.
Quasem is also known for his strong link with many organisations in the Middle East for financial purpose.
The verdict
In a cream blazer over a blue shirt, black trousers and shoes, Mir Quasem Ali was sitting in the dock on a chair all through the 45 minutes the tribunal took to read out the summary of the 351-page judgement.
The verdict says Quasem’s active inducement, approval and endorsement effectively contributed to the commission of all criminal activities carried out in the al-Badr camp, in furtherance of common purpose.
The Pakistani Army members were known as “Khan Shena” during the Liberation War. Quasem earned infamous titles for his atrocious acts in 1971 such as “Khan Shaheb,” “Bangali Khan,” “Sardar” (commander) as he and his force were actively collaborating with their killing mission against Bangalis.
In the verdict that cites the context of the nation’s struggle for freedom from Pakistan, the tribunal said Quasem had established himself as the “ring leader” of the criminal enterprise (al-Badr camp at Daleem Hotel).
Convicted Quasem’s conscious and active presence at the al-Badr camp, his inducing sayings, acts and conducts cumulatively suggest his “commanding position.”
His position “had encouraging effect” and gave approval to all criminal activities carried out to the commission of abduction, confinement, torture and death, the verdict says.
Despite being in commanding position of the al-Badr camp, he failed to prevent the commission of crimes. Rather, he used to remain present and grill the detainees, and ordered al-Badr men to beat them up, the verdict mentions.
The tribunal said Quasem was found liable also under the doctrine of Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE, form II), which means he was liable for systematic form of killing and torture.
Mir Quasem Ali was a “part of an ‘organised system’ of ill-treatment and cruelties…Quasem has incurred criminal liability also under the ‘theory of civilian superior responsibility’ in respect of offences proved.”
“His position of authority and domination over the al-Badr camp which was indeed a ‘death factory’ justifiably be taken onto account as an aggravating factor.”
According to a defence petition, Quasem is the member secretary of the Islami Bank Foundation, an organisation that oversees all projects of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and profits generated by it; chairman of Keari Ltd, a real estate and tourism company; founding trustee and also a member responsible for the administration of the Ibn Sina Trust and director (marketing) of Ibn Sina Pharmaceutical Industries.
The Jamaat leader is also the member secretary of the Fouad Al-Khateeb Charity Foundation. He is the chairman of the daily Naya Diganta and Diganta television.
Death on two charges
Any time after the Eid-ul-Fitr day of 1971, Quasem made a plan and at his instigating, the members of al-Badr force abducted freedom fighter Jasim from an unknown place of the Chittagong City and took him to Daleem Hotel.
Thereafter, on November 28, under Quasem’s directive and hint, al-Badr members having confined Jasim therein tortured to death and then his body along with five other dead bodies of unknown persons, who had also been tortured to death by al-Badr, were thrown into the Karnaphuli River.
On any day and at any time in November, Quasem planned the abduction of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Ranjit Das alias Lathu and Tuntu Sen alias Raju. He asked al-Badr men to pick them up from their houses on Hazari Lane.
Though Jahangir (who testified at the tribunal) was released from Daleem Hotel the following day, later al-Badr members, at the instigation of Quasem, killed Lathu and Raju and kept their bodies concealed. At the time of abduction of the victims, Quasem along with al-Badr, razakar and al-Shams forces and the Pakistani Army plundered many shops, torched about 250-300 houses and compelled more than 100 families to go to India as refugees.
Source: Dhaka Tribune