UN human rights experts urge Bangladesh for retrial of war criminal Mir Quasem Ali

A group of United Nations human rights experts have urged the Bangladesh government to annul the death sentence against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali, and “re-try him in compliance with international standards”.

The request was made on Tuesday as the Supreme Court prepares to review the final verdict on Wednesday.

 The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced him to death on Nov 2, 2014 for the abduction, torture and murder of the Bengalis who had wanted independence from Pakistan.

Based in Chittagong, Mir Quasem is notorious as the third man in the vigilante militia Al-Badr command structure during the 1971 war.

Founder president of the Jamaat’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir after its rechristening from the earlier Islami Chhatra Shangha in 1985, Mir Quasem has been an executive member of the party.

On Mar 8 this year, the 2014 verdict was upheld at the Appellate Division.

It was widely alleged by the Awami League government that Mir Quasem, a top financier of the Jamaat, had poured in funds for campaigns aimed at smearing the trials of war criminals when they began in 2010.

Mir Quasem Ali. File photo

In 2013, former law minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters that Mir Quasem had paid a lobbyist firm $25 million to call the war crimes tribunal judging top Jamaat leaders into question. The government, he said, had a copy of the contract and receipt for the payment he had made.

“Mr. Ali’s trial and appeal processes were reportedly marred with irregularities and failed to meet international standards on fair trial and due process for the imposition of the death penalty,” noted the UN experts on extrajudicial executions, independence of the judiciary, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.

The experts include new Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Mónica Pinto, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Juan E. Méndez, current chairperson of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Sètondji Roland Adjovi and the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

They are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organisation. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work.

They cautioned that international law, accepted as binding by Bangladesh, provides that “capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be considered an arbitrary execution”.

The UN human rights experts on several occasions earlier had expressed “alarm regarding serious violations of fair trial and due process guarantees in the judicial proceedings before the ICT that were reported to them”.

“The death penalty is the most severe form of punishment,” they pointed out. “In light of its irreversibility, every measure must be taken to ensure that all the defendants before the International Crimes Tribunal, including the Appellate Division, have received a fair trial.”

The experts recalled that the Working Group on Arbitrary found in 2012 that Ali’s deprivation of liberty was arbitrary and in breach of articles 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“We regret the Government’s non-compliance with the expert group’s recommendations to remedy the situation of Mr. Ali, and call upon the Bangladeshi authorities to respect their international obligations.”

The UN human rights experts also expressed alarm at reports that Ali’s son and part of his legal defence team, Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, was abducted from his home on Aug 9 by security forces.

“We understand that no information has been given on where he is being held, by whom or under what suspicion or charge. We urge the authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of Mr. Quasem,” they said.