By Mainul Islam Khan
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Tuesday for alleged crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence.
A special domestic court - the International Crimes Tribunal - had found the party’s secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, 67, guilty on five out of seven charges against him and sentenced him to death in July 2013.
He was given death sentence for two of the charges and the court upheld the verdict for his alleged involvement in helping and facilitating the murders of intellectuals during the war.
His lawyer Khandaker Muhbub told reporters after the announcement that his client would file for a review petition within the given time.
Mujahid served as the Social Welfare Minister during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government in 2001-2007.
He was the purported commander of al-Badr – an auxiliary militia group of Pakistani forces during the country’s war of independence.
The court had also upheld two death sentences for assistant secretary generals of the Jamaat-e-Islami – Abdul Quader Molla and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman - and executed them in December 2013 and in April 2015 respectively.
Most of the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami,Bangladesh's most prominent Islamist party, have been sentenced to death after being found guilty of war crimes.
The International Crimes Tribunal was established in 2009 to investigate war crimes committed in 1971. Bangladesh’s opposition parties and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch have criticized the process and expressed concerns about the accused not getting a fair trial.
