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Jamaat lobbyist Cadman calls for suspension of war crimes tribunals
Toby Cadman, who lobbies internationally for Jamaat-e-Islami leadership, has demanded suspension of the Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunals alleging a breach of international law in Motiur Rahman Nizami’s death penalty.
Published : 31 Oct 2014, 08:56 PM
Updated : 31 Oct 2014, 08:56 PM
The British lawyer has also asked for a freeze on all the sentences handed down by International Crimes Tribunal-1 and 2 claiming “serious prosecutorial and judicial misconduct”.
Speaking at a media call in London on Friday local time, the foreign counsel for Jamaat said they had moved the UN Office of the High Commissioner and UN Special Rapporteurs to intervene in the ‘highly controversial’ trial.
The ICT-1 last Wednesday gave Jamaat chief Nizami the capital punishment for his wartime atrocities.
He had led Pakistan occupation army’s vigilante militia Al-Badr that carried out systematic to torture and execute pro-liberation elements to abort Bangladesh’s birth in 1971.
The 71-year old Jamaat chief was found guilty in eight of the 16 charges – including spearheading the execution of intellectuals, mass killing, rape and loot – levelled against him.
But Cadman complained: “The Tribunal Judges failed to apply the proper legal principles as recognised under customary international law at the time of the conflict in 1971 in breach of the principle of legality.
“The Tribunal Judges convicted Nizami for establishing an alleged paramilitary group without presenting any credible evidence,” he said in a media statement.
Barrister Abu Bakar Molla and the coordinator of an organisation styled ‘Save Bangladesh’ Nazrul Islam was also with him in the press meet.
The lawyer further appealed to the international community to “intervene to prevent what is a gross miscarriage of justice” and claimed that if Bangladesh government carried out a further death sentence, that would constitute “an extra judicial killing”.
Cadman, on Sept 23 after Jamaat vice-president Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s appeal verdict that commuted his death sentence, had asked Bangladesh government to get a review of the conviction at “an internationally appointed, independent and impartial tribunal”.
The counsel on Friday alleged members of Bangladesh government “directly influenced and/or coerced witnesses for the Prosecution” during the trial.
But London-based International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF), after the Sayedee verdict, on Sept 17 pointed out that the Sayedee case “faced great difficulties from its inception and was subjected to the greatest extent of conspiracies from quarters striving to derail the justice process”.
“This included, among others, the abduction of a key prosecution witness, defence obtaining the register of prosecution witnesses in the safe house, hacking of personal computers of ICT judges and illegal interception of their personal communications etc - all during the trial of (Sayedee),” it had recalled.
Cadman, the Jamaat counsel, concluded by asking Bangladesh authorities to immediately establish “a truly international tribunal as per the recommendations of international experts who have commentated.”
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