Amnesty International: Resist pressure to push for death sentences at war crimes tribunal

Mass protests have taken place across Bangladesh calling for the death penalty for a man convicted of war crimes.© MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images
Mass protests have taken place across Bangladesh calling for the death penalty for a man convicted of war crimes.© MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images

The Bangladesh government must not let a proposed new legal amendment lead to a push for death sentences for those convicted in its ongoing war crimes tribunal, Amnesty International said.

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was set up in 2010 to try people suspected of crimes under international law, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence.

On Sunday, parliament is likely to pass an amendment to the law governing the proceedings of the ICT, which will enable prosecutors to appeal for the death penalty for those sentenced to imprisonment in the tribunal.

“Given the extremely tense situation in Bangladesh, there is a real risk that the government will use this amendment to push for those tried in the ICTto be sentenced to death,” said Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh researcher.

“We urge the government to resist this. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel and inhuman form of punishment, and the government should abolish it altogether, not call for it. .”

The amendment, proposed by the Cabinet, will allow the prosecution an equal right to appeal sentences – creating an opening for the prosecution to ask the Supreme Court to increase sentences of imprisonment to death sentences.

The ICT delivered its first verdict in absentia on 21 January 2013, sentencing one of the accused, Abul Kalam Azad, to death for crimes against humanity.

On 5 February, the ICT sentenced Abdul Quader Molla, a senior member of Jamaat-e-Islami (an opposition party), to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

That second verdict sparked mass protests across Bangladesh with tens of thousands of people rallying in in Dhaka calling for the death penalty for Molla. Opposition activists have called both verdicts politically motivated

A further seven individuals, all members of political opposition parties, are currently on trial in the ICT.

“The ICT is a historic opportunity to end over 40 years of impunity for the horrendous crimes committed during Bangladesh’s independence war,” Faiz said. “Victims deserve justice, but the accused also must have their human rights respected. Imposing the death penalty, which is a human rights violation, is not the answer.”

“The government must not simply use their majority in Parliament to change the law so that they can ask the Supreme Court to impose a death sentence.”

“This is the time for a calm and considered approach to these trials, if they are to bring justice and help ensure redress for the victims of the mass scale human rights violations in 1971. The government must ensure that the ICT maintains its independence and does not come under pressure from the public and the authorities to deliver the verdict that they want.”

Amnesty International has also received disturbing reports that some individuals critical of the ICT have been threatened and may be at risk of retaliatory violence.

“It is absolutely vital that the government ensures that those critical of the ICT are given protection and do not have to fear for their safety simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression,” Faiz said.

“People must be able to express their views about these trials freely and without being subjected to harassment or intimidation, and without fear of retaliation.”

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime, as a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

The International Criminal Court and all other international criminal courts established since 1993 have excluded the death penalty as a sentence for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

Source: Amnesty International

2 COMMENTS

  1. Trevor Phillips
    Chairperson
    Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)
    St Dunstan’s House
    London SE1 1GZ

    14 June 2004

    Dear Mr Phillips,

    Sharing platform with Muslim fundamentalist alleged war criminals

    While the great majority of Muslims in general, and Bengali Muslims in particular, are highly appreciative of your efforts towards reconciliation and mutual understanding between Muslims and other faiths, we were extremely concerned by your visit to the formal opening of the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel on 11 June 2004. A principal guest on this occasion was Moulana Delwar Hussain Sayadee MP. This man was stripped of his membership of Parliament in September 2003 by the Bangladeshi High Court for alleged violation of election rules. But our real anxiety centres on the fact that he is an avowed sectarian and fundamentalist. As a member of the Jamaat e Islami, a party opposed to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, he is alleged to have committed war crimes against men, women, children and minority faith groups during the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971.

    We believe that you should be aware that five people died in January 2004 at the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal in Sylhet, shortly after Sayadee spoke against ‘shrine culture’ in Sylhet. This, as you doubtless know, was the same shrine where the British High Commissioner in Bangladesh was injured in May 2004. It is, equally, no accident, that a prominent writer, Dr Humayun Azad was attacked, following a verbal attack upon him by Sayadee.

    Neither have the activities of this individual been confined to Bangladesh. According to local police and press reports, on 23 May 2000, followers of Sayadee attacked and assaulted five Muslim elders in Oldham. On June 13 in the following year, five of his followers attacked a local journalist in Oldham with knife, sticks and iron rods in his home at 3am in the morning. On 18 June of the same year, his supporters attacked and assaulted a number of elderly people in Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel, in London. Tower Hamlets police have a record of this incident.

    It should also be recognised that the United States of America have black-listed Sayadee as a danger to that country, and in consequence, he is on the ‘no fly passenger list’ and is forbidden to enter the USA.

    The London Muslim Centre is a project of the East London Mosque, which is itself linked to the Jamaat, and is known in the local community to be a source of fundamentalist activism. The Vice-Chairman of the Mosque is Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, also an alleged war criminal, whose activities were exposed in a Channel Four Dispatches programme, ‘War Crimes File’, in 1995. The case is pending with Scotland Yard and with the Bangladeshi authorities.

    In the light of these facts, we, as representatives of the peace loving and loyal majority of Muslims in Tower Hamlets, and in Britain, seems to us, a significant and delicate distinction to be made between the urgent work of conciliation between peoples and the appeasement of those who promote hostility and hatred.

    We would appreciate your cooperation and seek a meeting with you & our groups.

    Yours sincerely

    Sunahwar Ali
    Chairperson
    UK Committee for Resisting Killers & Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971

    1 Anwara Syed Hoque, Vice Chair
    Central Committee for Resisting Killers & Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971

    2 Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, President
    Bangladesh Welfare Association UK

    3 Shamsuddin Khan, President
    UK Awami League

    4 Syed Samsul Hoque
    Writer

    5 Sarob Ali
    UK Jubo League
    6 Abdul Mannan Sorab Ali, Commander
    Bangladesh Liberation Force Council UK

    7 Jeremy Seabrook
    Writer

    8 Shamsuddin Ahmed Chowdhury
    Former Justice (In Bangladesh)

    9 Aminul Haque Badsha
    Freedom Fighters Unity Council

    10 Bangladesh Left Alliance

    11 Ishaque Kajol
    Bangladesh Workers Party

    12 Cllr Khalil Kazi, OBE, Chairperson
    National Union of Bengali Association

    13 M A Rahim
    All Party Resistance Committee

    14 Ahmed Kamal
    Community Activist

    15 Ansar Ahmed Ullah & M A Rouf
    National Coordinating Committee for the Realisation of Bangladesh Liberation War Ideals & Trials of Bangladesh War Criminals of 1971

    16 Goyasur Rahman
    Bangladesh Socialist party

    17 Sujit Sen, Gen Secretary
    Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council

    18 C S Kabir, Chairperson
    Nagorik Mancha

    19 Ansarul Hoque, London Awami League

    20 Syed Mansur Ahmed Lilu
    Greater London Secretary
    National Socialist party

    21 Syed Nurul Islam, President
    Bangladesh Labour League

    22 Golam Kabir, President
    Communist Party of Bangladesh

    23 Abdul Gaffar Choudhury
    Writer & Columnist

    24 Patricia Bairagee, Teacher

    25 Dr Zaidul Hasan Zahid, Secretary General
    All Europe Bangabandhu Society

    • Amnesty International understands the past of these criminals under trial. I am the witness of barbaric action they did . There are plenty of documents/pictures of their crime. You must not be biased or serve the interest of your lord(western countries) . When millions of people killed other places,you donot raise your voice or hardly you say no good. Only all the influences you can show for weak countries.
      Abul

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