ICC rejects BNP-Jamaat complaints: foreign minister

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected the BNP and Jamaate-e-Islami’s complaints of abuse against the Bangladesh government, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said.

The two parties have been accusing the government in the court in the Netherlands since 2013 of treating opposition parties in a manner amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity.
 
“A court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, informed us in a letter that those accusations had no legal basis,” the minister said on Wednesday.

“This again proves that Jamaat-BNP and their cohorts are involved in spreading horrible lies against Bangladesh and its people.” 

The complaints made to the international tribunal were part of an ‘effort to cover up Jamaat’s war crimes from 1971’, he said. 

As for Turkey’s decision to call home its ambassador after the execution of Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, the minister said, “Turkey did not recall him… he was called back for consultations …. it’s a routine step. We have also asked our ambassador in Turkey to report home.” 

There was no strain in ties with Turkey, he said, adding that Dhaka had not ‘softened up’ after president Tayyip Erdogan expressed huge dissatisfaction over Nizami’s execution for war crimes.