Also urges SC to ban Jamaat politics
Ghulam Azam being taken to tribunal prior to the pronouncement of verdict in his war crimes case on July 15.
The government Monday appealed with the Supreme Court seeking death penalty to Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam for masterminding crimes against humanity, genocide, and other offences during Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Independence.
Forty-two years after liberation, a special tribunal sentenced the former Jamaat-e-Islami chief on July 15 to 90 years in prison for the offences as it found the 91-year-old guilty on all five charges stacked against him.
The judges said Ghulam Azam deserved the gallows but he was given prison terms due to his old age.
In the appeal, the government also prayed to the apex court to stop the politics of Jamaat since the war crimes tribunal has termed Jamaat as a criminal organisation.
Jamaat has committed crimes against humanity and atrocities during the Liberation War but the party has not changed its position on anti-liberation war even in 42 years since the country earned its independence.
Even, the party has not apologised to the nation for its criminal and anti-liberation activities, the appeal petition added.
MK Rahman, additional attorney general and chief coordinator of the war crimes prosecution team, told reporters that the appeal has been filed under the amended probation of the International crimes (tribunal) act-1973 which allows the government to appeal against inadequate punishment given by war crimes tribunal to a convict.
In the appeal, it has been said that the International Crimes Tribunal-1 had acted beyond the law by not awarding the death penalty to Ghulam Azam even though all the charges brought against him were proved beyond doubt.
In its verdict, the ICT-1 said the man — 49 years old in 1971 — was complicit with the perpetrators in planning, conspiracy and incitement which resulted in massive atrocities during the nation’s struggle for freedom from Pakistan.
Source: The Daily Star
