‘Bangladesh must overturn death verdicts’

Bangladesh should overturn the death sentence against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and others, Amnesty International has said, claiming that the sentencing was no act of justice for the millions massacred during the 1971 Liberation War.

“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and can never be a way to deliver justice,” Abbas Faiz, Bangladesh Researcher for the UK-based rights group, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The first International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami, the notorious head of the vigilante militia, Al-Badr, to hang until death after finding him guilty of eight war crimes charges such as mass killing, murder, rape, loot and execution of Bengali intellectuals in 1971.

It also observed that Nizami despite his education in Islamic jurisprudence used the name of Allah and Islam ‘in order to ruin and root out the Bengali Nation’.

Describing the Jamaat-e-Islami as the ‘third-biggest political party in Bangladesh’, Faiz said, lawyers representing its top leaders at ICT have repeatedly ‘raised concerns’ about the court ‘not following fair trial standards’.

“All verdicts so far have come against individuals associated with the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party,” he said, excluding BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, found guilty of heinous war crimes and sentenced to death last year.

Amnesty, however, seemed to welcome the formation of the tribunal to bring war criminals to justice but underlined that it faced allegations of unfair trials from rights groups since it was established.

“The ICT is a unique opportunity for justice and reconciliation in Bangladesh. But in the face of consistent concerns raised by the defence team about the trials not being fair it will only have the opposite effect and create more resentment.”

Faiz told bdnews24.com, he “believed that Nizami and other war criminals will not be released with a change of government in Bangladesh," as killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were not released.

"It never happened with the case of Col Faruk, Shahriar Rashid and others when BNP was in power. There is no reason they should be released with a change of government. All we are saying is that we are against the death penalty whether it is in Bangladesh, China, USA or Iran."

Former Prime Minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia, whose party is an ally of the Jamaat, has repeatedly dubbed the tribunals ‘political’, saying “all those who have been imprisoned, from Jamaat as well as from BNP, must be released".

“The crimes committed during the independence war were horrific, and there is no question that victims deserve justice. But the death penalty only perpetuates the cycle of violence.”

The Amnesty statement claimed the political situation in Bangladesh was ‘extremely tense’ with a ‘real risk of violence’ erupting from any street demonstrations.

“It is crucial that security forces ensure that people’s right to demonstrate peacefully is respected.”

Bangladesh was one of only nine countries that carried out executions every year between 2009 and 2013, while 140 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, he said.