bdinn/news/mollah-death-sentence-inflames-bangladesh/ Mollah Death Sentence Inflames Bangladesh Sep 26, 2013 2012-02-21__azad-mpBy Ferdous Ahmad Bhuiya OnIslam In an exclusive interview with OnIslam, Hamidur Rahman Azad, a member of central executive committee of Jamaat-E- Islami, has blasted the death sentence issued against Abdul Quader Mollah, blaming the government for the absence of justice in the Muslim-majority country. “At present there is no justice in Bangladesh,” Azad, who is also a member of Bangladesh National parliament, told OnIslam.net. “The ruling government has amended the law to kill a religious leader through judiciary, making a bad precedent in the history,” he added. Azad was commenting on the ruling issued last week which found Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, guilty of murder, rape and torture. Looking an appeal to acquit Mollah from all charges, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, issuing a death sentence for the opposition leader. In order to allow a change of an earlier life sentence, the parliament amended a law to allow the state to appeal against any verdict or sentence passed by the tribunal. Azad stressed that this death sentenced verdict for Abdul Quader Mollah is a judicial killing in the name of judicial process. “If government illegal interference to the judiciary continues, then Bangladeshi people will be protest,” he said. “Jamaat will also remain committed to lead a strong opposition against the government,” the Bangladeshi MP added. Ismail Hossain Baten, a political activist and member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, main opposition party of Bangladesh, has also condemned the verdict. “Verdict of the Mollah’s case is guided by Ruling government instruction and will, so it’s a government’s sponsor judgment,” Baten told OnIslam.net. He added that present autocratic government does not allow people to raise their voice freely. Yet, people succeeded in showing their anger against the ruling government by joining the general strike called by strong opposition party Jamaat-E- Islami. “War crimes cases against the Jamaat leaders are purely political. If the political power changes, all cases will stop and jamaat leaders will be freed,” he added. World Anger Seeing the growing anger among Bangladeshis, Stephen J Rapp, the US ambassador, urged Bangladesh authorities to make a ‘genuine process’ of review to the death sentence. “On the question of a death sentence, the standard is clear, that there needs to be further review, that I really think it is important and it is important that I speak out,” Rapp, the head of the office of global criminal justice in the state department, said. Rapp added that it was important that those accused and convicted at the tribunal have the same level of rights as any other person in Bangladesh, where death sentences have to be reviewed by the appellate division as a standard procedure. Ruhul Amin Gaji, president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalist, has also blasted the government move to amend the law during the trial. “There is no any precedent in any judicial history that less punishment increases in higher court; But Bangladesh Supreme court has increased punishment as death sentenced of Abdul Quader Mollah,” he told OnIslam. “General people including me feel that Mollah didn’t get natural justice in this case.” The former East Pakistan declared independence from Islamabad in December 1971 at the end of a nine-month civil war in which the government says three million people were killed. Independent estimates put the figure much lower. A dozen of defendants are being tried by the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up in March 2010, over their alleged role in the war. But all the defendants are either members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party or of the main opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP), prompting accusations that the process is politically-driven. The war trials have angered Islamists and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who call them a politically motivated bid to persecute the leadership of Jamaat. Fair Trial! A leading international human rights organization has also criticized the government for changing the law to apply death verdict on the Islamist leader. “Changing the law and applying it retroactively after a trial offends basic notions of a fair trial under international law,” said Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organization added that the amendments are a clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bangladesh is a state party. Human Rights Watch has long called for the repeal of this amendment as it violates international law. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which interprets the ICCPR, has also said that “in cases of trials leading to the imposition of the death penalty scrupulous respect of the guarantees of fair trial is particularly important” and that any death penalty imposed after an unfair trial would be a violation of the right to a fair trial. Azam was the fifth Islamist leader to be charged of war crimes during the independence war. Last May, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, assistant secretary general of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, was sentenced to death for war crimes during the 1971 independence war. In March, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death on charges of committing war crimes during the independence war. The verdict drew widespread condemnations from Muslims worldwide and triggered deadly protests in Bangladesh, which left at least 200 people dead. Several Jamaat leaders and two from the BNP are still on trial at the tribunal.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 22:59:07 +0000
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