Nizami defence calls verdict ‘most unhappy judgment’

The tribunal has delivered a ‘hashed-up verdict’, says defence counsel Tajul Islam, who represents the top Jamaat-e-Islami leadership in war crimes cases.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 29 Oct 2014, 07:27 AM
Updated : 29 Oct 2014, 09:43 AM

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Responding to Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami’s death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal-1, Tajul Islam said the judgment stemmed from a ‘weak case’ by the prosecution.
The head of notorious Al-Badr, a killing squad that acted in collaboration with Pakistani occupation forces to kill, rape and torture unarmed civilians during the 1971 Liberation War, was awarded the death sentence Wednesday in four charges.
Nizami was given life in prison in four other charges and acquitted in eight.
Tajul said the tribunal went beyond its jurisdiction observing that the biggest mistake was to make Nizami a minister of liberated Bangladesh during the 2001-06 BNP-Jamaat coalition government.
‘A court cannot make political statements. The people of Bangladesh had elected him MP by dint of which he eventually became a minister,’ said the defence lawyer in an enraged voice after the verdict had been delivered.
“It’s a sham of a judgment, with made-up witnesses... this verdict will never stick... it is a most unhappy judgment,” Tajul went on.
When asked about Nizami’s reaction, he said: “I’ve just spoken to him, he said ‘everything they said about me are lies’.”
He said the tribunal had failed to analyse the case. “We’ll certainly appeal.”