DHAKA, Bangladesh - A former government minister will be
hang on Tuesday (today) by Bangladesh’s war crimes court for rape and genocide
during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.
Syed Mohammad Kaiser became the 15th person to be convicted
of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal, which found him guilty of
heading a militia that rounded up and killed some 150 people in the nine-month
conflict.
The 73-year-old, who uses a wheelchair, did not react as the
judge read out the verdict and said he would be “hanged by the neck until his
death”.Lawyers for Kaiser, a former minister with the Jatiya Party which forms part of Bangladesh’s ruling coalition, have rejected the charges and say they will appeal.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina created the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court, in 2010.
- It has mostly focused on the trials of the leaders of the largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, although a former minister of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has also been sentenced to hang.
- Prosecutors said Kaiser had raised a pro-Pakistani militia that carried out a series of murders, rapes and looting.
Judge Obaidul Hassan said the prosecution proved “beyond
reasonable doubt” that Kaiser had established the militia, which created a
“reign of terror”. Prosecutor Mohammad Ali told AFP that Kaiser led his militia
and Pakistani forces to attack 22 villages in the Brahmanbaria area
near the border with India on November 15, 1971,“At least 108 unarmed Hindu civilians were killed. Scores of their houses were looted and set on fire,” he said.
Source: AFP
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