Bangladesh sentences Islamist leader to death for war crimes

Delwar Hossain Sayedee, 73, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of charges of mass killing, rape, arson, looting and forcing minority Hindus to convert to Islam during the 1971 independence war, lawyers and tribunal officials said.

The religious party, known as Jamaat, called for a daylong countrywide strike in anticipation of the verdict against Sayedee, the third senior party member convicted by the tribunal. The strike call was largely ignored.

“The verdict has appropriately demonstrated justice. We are happy,” state prosecutor Haider Ali told reporters.

Jamaat officials were not immediately available for comment. They condemned the two earlier convictions.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up the tribunal in 2010 to investigate abuses during the independence war that claimed about 3 million lives and during which thousands of women were raped.

The tribunal has been criticized by rights groups for failing to adhere to international standards of due process. Human Rights Watch cited defense lawyers, witnesses and investigators as saying they had been threatened.

Critics say the tribunal is being used by the prime minister as an instrument against her opponents in the two biggest opposition parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. Begum Khaleda Zia, Hasina's arch rival and leader of the BNP, has called the tribunal a “farce.”

Hasina's party has denied allegations of bias.

On Jan. 21, the tribunal sentenced Abul Kalam Azad, a former Jamaat member to death in absentia after he was found guilty of torture, rape and genocide during Bangladesh's 1971 war to break away from Pakistan.

In its second verdict, on Feb. 5, the tribunal sentenced another senior Jamaat member, Abdul Quader Mollah, 64, to life in prison after he was found guilty of charges including murder, rape, torture and arson.

Both of the verdicts sparked protests by Jamaat supporters.

But those protests incited larger counterdemonstrations by supporters of the tribunal demanding death sentences for all those responsible for abuses during the war.

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