Since the formation of International Crimes Tribunals (ICTs) in Bangladesh over two years ago to try the members of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and other political parties for their alleged involvement in ‘war crimes’ during the country’s struggle for independence from Pakistan, this South Asian country has been in turmoil. The country witnessed an increase in the tumultuous situation last week when on December 12 Dhaka executed Assistant Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Quader Mollah, following the rejection of his petition for review of his death sentence awarded by the ICT. By the time we are rushing to the press at least 20 innocent persons have been reportedly killed by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel.
This hanging of an opposition leader, who had a large following in the country and was respected as a great Islamic leader worldwide, has been widely condemned by many leaders of Asia and Africa as ‘judicial murder’ and ‘a brazen act of barbarism’.
This latest judgement of the Supreme Court in Abdul Quader Mollah case shows that the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973 (amended in 2009 to give unjust sweeping powers to the government machinery) is faulty and flawed as it has excluded the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to review the findings of the Tribunal established under this Act. The Act has also excluded the jurisdiction of Domestic Evidence Act and also international procedure on war crimes or crimes against humanity.
There is an allegation that most prosecutors and judges of the ICT are playing a partisan role, following the political vendetta policy of Sheikh Hasina administration.
In view of these facts and the barbaric execution of Abdul Quader Mollah, the concerned citizens of the country as well as world leaders and civil and human rights activists world over feel that no justice can be expected from ICT and that all the accused, including most venerated leaders like Prof. Ghulam Azam and Maulana Dilawar Husain who have been implicated in concocted charges for their only ‘crime’ of working for the cause of Islam, will be victim of such an unjust law. This is high time world leaders and international human rights organisations exerted pressure on Dhaka to abolish the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973, annul the International Crimes Tribunals and retry the accused in an international court so that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami can freely exercise its right to political participation without harassment or restrictions and the country can be saved from plunging into further chaos and anarchy.