The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is going to settle the 11th war crimes case when it delivers verdict on Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami on Tuesday.
Published : 24 Jun 2014, 12:37 AM
Formed four years ago to try suspected war criminals, the two tribunals have so far delivered sentences in nine cases, convicting 10 men, six of them former and current Jamaat leaders.
The tribunal decided not to press ahead with a case against Khulna’s war crimes suspect AKM Yusuf after he died.
On Monday, Law Minister Anisul Huq told Parliament that the tribunals were hearing 10 cases while four others, including that of Nizami, were awaiting verdicts.
ICT-1 delivered three verdicts on former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, senior Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee, and BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. The rest were handed down by the second tribunal.
Only war criminal Abdul Quader Molla’s appeal has been settled by Supreme Court.
The much-awaited trials of suspected war criminals started through the formation of the war crimes tribunal on Mar 25, 2010. A second tribunal was set up on Feb 3, 2012 to expedite the trials.
However, it was not until another year before the first verdict came.
On Jan 21 last year, former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad, popularly known as ‘Bachchu Razakar’, was tried and sentenced to death in absentia.
Jamaat’s Assistant Secretary General Molla was the second man to receive the sentence. He was handed down life term on Feb 5, 2013 kicking off a mass upsurge demanding maximum penalty for convicted war criminals.
On Sep 17, the Appellate Division maximised Molla’s penalty and his was the first sentence to be carried out.
Another Jamaat leader Sayedee was the third in line. He was convicted and sentenced to death on Feb 28 last year. Jamaat activists ran amok across Bangladesh and the violence that followed claimed over 70 lives.
On May 9 of the same year, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was ordered to walk the gallows.
But the big verdict came the next month on June 15 when Jamaat’s Liberation War time chief Ghulam Azam was sentenced to 90 years in prison in the tribunals’ fifth verdict.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed was sentenced to death on July 17 on war crimes charges.
BNP standing committee member and former parliamentarian Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was given the maximum penalty on Oct 1. Eight days later, former BNP minister Abdul Alim was awarded life in prison.
The last verdict came on Nov 3 against two Al-Badr leaders -- Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Chowdhury Mueenuddin -- for spearheading the execution of Bengalee intelligentsia at the fag end of the war.
Both were tried and sentenced to death in absentia.
Altogether 577 war crimes cases have been filed across Bangladesh, Minister Huq told Parliament.
Of them, 112 have filed in Dhaka Division, 184 in Khulna, 84 in Chittagong, 66 in Rajshahi, 51 in Barisal, 50 in Sylhet, and 30 in Rangpur.