Students call strike Tuesday

Ten student and youth organisations, who are a part of the Shahbagh protests, have called a daylong nationwide general strike for Tuesday in protest at former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam’s 90 years in jail verdict.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 July 2013, 04:50 AM
Updated : 15 July 2013, 05:34 AM

After the first war crimes tribunal delivered the judgement on Monday afternoon, Bangladesh Chhatra Maitri President Bappaditya Basu made the announcement around 4:15pm on behalf of the organisations.

The call came from their renewed stance at the capital’s Shahbagh on death to all convicted war criminals. The verdict will make Azam to spend the next 90 years in jail and ‘die behind bars’.

The 91-year-old has been found guilty by the ICT-1 of all five categories of crime – incitement, conspiracy, planning, abetment and failure to prevent murder.

For the first two charges he was given 20 years, for the third and fourth 20 years each and for the fifth another 30 years. Azam will serve “consecutively”, said presiding judge Justice ATM Fazle Kabir.
However, expressing dissatisfaction over the verdict, the prosecution has already said they will appeal after getting a copy of the judgement.
The defence has claimed the verdict was ‘unjust and emotionally driven verdict’. They will also appeal.