Bangladesh’s the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 1 has pronounced judgement in six cases of crimes against humanity, sentencing 12 war criminals to death for their crimes during the liberation war in 1971.
The first judgement came from the three-member tribunal on February 2, as it sentenced Netrokona ‘razakar’ (collaborator of Pakistani army) duo Obaidul Haque Taher and Ataur Rahman Noni to death as four out of the six charges against them were proved beyond any doubt.
On May 3, the tribunal sentenced Kishoreganj razakars Gazi Abdul Mannan, 88, Nasiruddin Ahmed, 62, his brother Shamsuddin Ahmed, 60 and Hafiz Uddin, 66, to death for their 1971 crimes, while handing down imprisonment for life to their cohort Azharul Islam, 60.
Habiganj razakar commander Mohibur Rahman alias Boro Miah was sentenced to death while his younger brother Mozibur Rahman Angur Miah and cousin Abdur Razzak received sentences of imprisonment till natural death on June 1.
On July 18, the ICT-1 sentenced three killers of Jamalpur Al-Badr Bahini, Ashraf Hossain, Abdul Mannan and Abdul Bari, to death and their five companions Sharif Ahmed, Md Harun, Abul Hashem, Shamsul Haque and Yusuf Ali to imprisonment till natural death.
The first tribunal on August 10 sentenced former BNP and Jamaat lawmaker Sakhawat Hossain to death and imprisonment till natural death to his seven cohorts for committing crimes against humanity
in 1971.
“The sentence of death awarded as above in respect of charge number two and four be executed by hanging the convict accused Sakhawat Hossain by the neck or by shooting him till he is dead, as decided by the government,” said Justice Anwarul Haque, chairman, the ICT-1.
The other seven accused are Billal Hossain, Ibrahim Hossain, Sheikh Md Mujibur Rahman, Abdul Aziz Sarder, Qazi Ohidul Islam alias Wahidur Salam, Aziz Sarder and Abdul Khalek Morol. ICT-1 left the name of another accused Lutfor Morol out of the judgement as he died of a cardiac arrest in police custody on
May 6, 2016.
In its last judgment of the year, the ICT-1 on December 5 sentenced fugitive razakar leader from Shariatpur Idris Ali Sardar to death for committing crimes against
humanity in 1971.
Meanwhile, two top war criminals including the now former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Matiur Rahman Nizami, were hanged in 2016 for committing crimes against
humanity in 1971.
Nizami’s party colleague and Al-Badr commander Mir Quasem Ali was hanged in Kashimpur Central Jail on September 3, for his crimes against humanity during 1971.
Related Story