Bangladesh special tribunal convicts opposition leader of war crimes News
Bangladesh special tribunal convicts opposition leader of war crimes

[JURIST] The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal [official website] on Thursday convicted [judgment, PDF] opposition politician MA Zahid Hossain Khokon to death for his role in killings and other war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. The Tribunal found the accused guilty of the offenses of “murder, torture, deportation, rape, confinement, abduction and other inhumane acts” within the crimes against humanity sections of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 [text]. Khokon, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) [official website], was tried in absentia and is currently a fugitive [AP report] believed to be residing with his family in Sweden.

A number of high profile Bangladesh politicians have been charged and convicted of crimes allegedly committed during the 1971 war with Pakistan. Earlier this month the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the death sentence of Islamist politician Mohammad Kamaruzzaman. The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] convicted Kamaruzzaman last year for committing war crimes including mass murder during the 1971 War. In October a special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced [JURIST report] Jamaat-e-Islami [party website; Global Security backgrounder] leader Motiur Rahman Nizami to death for crimes committed during the 1971 war. Also in October former Bangladeshi Islamist party leader Ghulam Azam, who was imprisoned for war crimes last year, died [JURIST report] of a heart attack in a prison cell of a government hospital.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in Six Days' War

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied during the Six Days' War, and for respect of the right of all States in the area to "live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries." Read Resolution 242, which remains a cornerstone of efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

President Kennedy assassinated, VP Lyndon Johnson sworn inin

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was later tasked with leading a commission to investigate the assassination. President Johnson received the final report of the Warren Commission on September 24, 1964. Read the Warren Commission Report.