Terms tribunal ‘a joke’, ‘kangaroo court
Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, in an interview with Al Jazeera, claimed he was not involved in war crimes.
Terming the ongoing war trial as “sham trial”, war crimes accused Chowdhury Mueen Uddin has brushed aside any chance of appearing before the tribunal.
Now living in Britain, Mueen also termed the tribunal as “a joke” and “kangaroo court” in an interview with Al Jazeera, which was aired Saturday.
Mueen’s comments came four days after the International Crimes Tribunal-2 started his trial for 11 charges of wartime offences which include the killing of 18 intellectuals in between the early hours of December 11 to December 15 in 1971.
Declining to identify himself as a war criminal, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin told the ‘Talk to Al Jazeera’ programme that he was not involved in any criminal activities of any nature in 1971 or since.
The director of Muslim spiritual care provision in Britain’s national health service and a trustee of the charity Muslim Aid, Mueen claimed that he did not support the military action in the then East Pakistan.
Saying that he was in no way involved with Jamaat-e-Islami, Mueen admitted that he was a member of Islami Chhatra Sangha.
“I resigned my political posts after the military crackdown (on March 25, 1971 night).”
Until now, Mueen, a co-founder of the influential Muslim Council of Britain who fled to Britain after the 1971 war, Liberation War, has said little about the charges against him.
When the Al Jazeera interviewer, Johan Hull, pointed out that he had said he was willing to face a fair trial to clear his name and asked whether he would you appear before the tribunal in Bangladesh, he replied: “Well, not. Simply because the tribunal in Bangladesh is a joke. It’s a sham trial they are conducting.”
Claiming that a lot of people in the international community are critical of the process and the standards of the tribunal, he said: “No one will be willing to submit themselves to such a court of law.”
Source: The Daily Star
If what Mueen is saying is true about various charges brought against him then why did he flee Bangladesh after the liberation war in 1971? What is he afraid of appearing before the Tribunal? With the evidences the Tribunal must have, it should not be difficult for it to request Mueen’s extradiction from Britain.