Bangladesh high court upholds death sentence for Islamist party leader News
Bangladesh high court upholds death sentence for Islamist party leader

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official website] on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed for war crimes committed during the 1971 War of Liberation [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] against Pakistan. Mojaheed, the Secretary-General of Jamaat-e-Islami Party (JI) [party website; GlobalSecurity backgrounder] was originally sentenced [JURIST report] by the International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) [official website] on charges of kidnapping and murder during the war. Mojaheed could be hanged within months [Economic Times report] if he does not get presidential clemency or another court review.

The ICTB, which was established in 2009 under the International Crimes Act [text], is charged with investigating and prosecuting war crimes committed during the 1971 conflict, in which about 3 million people were killed. Earlier in June a Bangladeshi court gave Syed Mohammed Hasan Ali, a fugitive commander of an auxiliary force of Pakistani troops, a death sentence [JURIST report] for torture and massacre in the Liberation War. In April a Bangladeshi appeals court rejected [JURIST report] a final appeal by Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, an Islamist party official convicted of war crimes during the 1971 Liberation war, upholding his death sentence. In February the ICTB convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] Abdul Jabbar, a militia leader and former lawmaker, to life in prison for genocide and religious persecution committed during the 1971 Liberation War. Earlier that month the tribunal convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] Islamist leader Adbus Subhan to death. In February the ICTB sentenced [JURIST report] the former Bangladeshi Junior Minister to death for genocide and crimes against humanity.

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