An international crimes tribunal on Monday handed down Mobarak Hossain, an expelled Awami League leader of Brahmanbaria, death sentence for committing war crimes during the country’s independence war in 1971.
A three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1 pronounced the judgement, that had been kept waiting since June 2, against Mobarak, in a crowded courtroom in the capital’s Old High Court building amid tight security.
The presiding judge, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, declared the verdict, saying, ‘He be hanged by the neck till he is dead’ at about 12:05pm .
Other judges, Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Anwarul Haque, were present.
Out of the 5 charges brought against him, the tribunal found him guilty on 2 charges beyond any doubt. He got death penalty in one charge and life term imprisonment in another charge. He was, however, acquitted from 3 charges.
The life term imprisonment will naturally get merged with the death sentence, the presiding judge said.
The trial of Mobarak, on 5 crimes against humanity charges ended on June 2 and the tribunal wished to deliver the verdict at a later date.
The tribunal, then, on Sunday said it would deliver judgement of the war crimes case against Mobarak on Monday.
Mobarak was produced before the tribunal at around 9:25am.
For the ICT-1, created on March 25, 2010, it was the sixth verdict.
The ICT-2, founded on March 22, 2012, until now delivered verdicts in seven war crimes cases.
On April 23, 2013, Mobarak was indicted on five counts of crimes against humanity.
He was tried for committing murders, abductions, conspiracy, deportation, torture, looting, confinement and other atrocities between August 22, 1971 and November 29, 1971 in Brahmanbaria.
During the trial, 12 prosecution witnesses testified against him.
Mobarak himself and his eldest son Asad Uddin testified as defence witnesses.
Born on January 10, 1950 at village Nayadil under Akhaura in Brahmanbaria, Mobarak was a Jamaat member in 1971 and joined Awami League in the 1990s, according to the prosecution.
Mobarak, now in jail, served as an organising secretary of Mugra union AL, Akhaura, Brahmanbaria, for 16 years until his expulsion in 2012.
Mobarak, as the local commander of Razakar Bahini, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, committed the war crimes in 1971.
He faced the charges of killing 33 unarmed civilians at Tanmandayl in Akhaura, grabbing Anandamoyee Kalibari and renaming it as Razakar Manzil, torturing Ashu Ranjan to death, abduction and murder of Abdul Khaleque of Chhatian village, Abduction, torture and murder of Khadem Hossain Khan; and abduction of Abdul Malek of Kharampur and Mohammad Siraj of Amirpara and then killing of Siraj.
Source: Newage
