BANGLADESH EX-MINISTER SENTENCE TO HANG
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
BANGLADESH EDITOR JAIL FOR 7 YEARS OVER ISRAEL VISIT?
DACCA - A Bangladesh court yesterday jailed a newspaper editor for seven years for
trying to travel to Israel more than a decade ago to speak about a rise in
Islamic militancy.
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, 48, who edits the Weekly Blitz newspaper, was
found guilty of harming the country's interests through his articles as well as
trying to make a banned trip to Israel, said prosecutor Shah Alam Talukder.
The verdict in the capital of the Muslim-majority nation came amid mounting
criticism of the government's muzzling of dissenting voices, and after a
blood-soaked general election boycotted by the opposition and dismissed as a
farce.Choudhury was arrested in November 2003 at Dhaka airport as he tried to a conference in Tel Aviv to present a paper on the emergence of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, Talukder said.
- "Police seized several CDs, a laptop and a Dhaka-Bangkok-Tel Aviv air ticket from him. He was going to Israel to speak on the rise of Islamic militancy in the country and how the madrassas are being used to spawn militants," Talukder said.
- Muslim-majority Bangladesh does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel and the country's 154 million citizens are banned from travelling there.
- Choudhury's writings, some of which were apparently published in the USA Today newspaper, were found to be "derogatory", "seditious" and to have tarnished the country's image, the prosecutor said.
- He said Choudhury was in court for the verdict and was immediately sent to prison.
- Defence lawyer Prokash Ranjan Biswas said he would appeal as the verdict was "extremely unjust" and based on spurious charges.
- "The prosecution could never prove that he was planning to travel to Israel. (And) His writing in the USA Today could never be found," Biswas said, adding that the court also denied his client's right to recall the prosecution witnesses to testify.
Choudhury was critical of the 2001-2006 Islamist-allied Bangladesh
government led by the then-premier Khaleda Zia(photo).During the period several Islamic militant groups carried out a series of deadly bomb attacks in the country.
Bangladesh's current secular government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
has targeted pro-opposition journalists, and detained a top editor on charges
of inciting terrorist activities.
Source: AFP
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