“No doubt, it was mass murder,” presiding judge Enayetur Rahimjudge Rahim told a packed court, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
The judge then ordered Azharul Islam, the assistant secretary general of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, to be “hanged by the neck” for the claimed “genocide” of more than 1,200 people in a flood plain in the northern district of Rangpur.
The sentence makes Azharul Islam the 16th person and the 11th Islamist to be convicted of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal, the controversial court created by Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina.
The 62-year-old is the assistant secretary general of the nation’s largest Islamist party, the Jamaat-e Islami.
“I am innocent!” he shouted as the presiding judge Enayetur Rahim ordered him to be “hanged by the neck”.
Bangladesh, 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.
Strike
As secular protesters staged impromptu “victory” marches, Jamaat condemned the politicized sentence.
Defense lawyer Tajul Islam rejected the charges against Islam and said his team planned to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
“Azharul Islam was a 19-year-old student during the war and in no way was involved in war crime. The charges against him are false and fabricated,” the lawyer said.
Jamaat condemned the verdict, calling for a nationwide strike for December 31 and January 1.
“Islam is a victim of the government’s continued conspiracy to murder the Jamaat leadership,” acting party chief Maqbul Ahmed said in a statement.
He also accused the government of “arranging false witness statements by its party people.”
Previous death sentences, handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest last year.
Thousands of Islamists clashed with police in nationwide protests over the verdicts and other issues and some 500 people were killed.
The BNP and Jamaat have called the trials politically motivated, aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice. Rights groups have said they fall short of international standards.
Source: OnIslam
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