A top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party and Bangladeshi media doyen Mir Quasem Ali was sentenced to death today by a special tribunal for war crimes he committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971, days after the party's chief was given capital punishment on identical charges.
"He (Ali) shall be hanged by neck until he is dead," pronounced chairman of the three-member tribunal as the 62-year-old Jamaat leader looked bewildered on the dock.
The court simultaneously sentenced him to 72-year imprisonment for several other charges while lawyers said the jail terms would be virtually infructuous since he was sentenced to death.
Emerging from the court, the lawyers and witnesses said the tribunal found Ali guilty of 10 out of 14 charges while under two charges he was sentenced to death for torturing to death two juvenile freedom fighters and throwing their bodies into a river at northeastern port city of Chittagong.
Ali was said to have been the third man in the command of the infamous Gestapo like Al-Badr militia forces and is also known to be a top financier of Jamaat as he owned a number of big businesses in Bangladesh. Alongside a number of businesses in different sectors, Ali owns the Diganta Media Corporation, which runs a now suspended television channel and a newspaper, known for their close links with Jamaat.
Ali was accused of running a makeshift torture camp at a hotel in the port city where hundreds of people believed to be freedom fighters and their supporters were killed. Out of 24 prosecution witnesses, several were survivors of the torture camp at the Dalim Hotel.
Prosecution lawyer Turin Afroz welcomed the verdict, saying "It is another step forward to end the culture of impunity", while the defence lawyers quoting Ali after the judgment said "it is prescribed verdict in a fabricated case".
"We will definitely challenge the verdict before the Supreme Court," defence lawyer Mizanul Islam told newsmen.
The verdict came as Jamaat enforced the second phase of their three-day nationwide general strike which they called after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami was handed down death penalty on Wednesday.
Nizami, 71, was sentenced to death for mass killing, rape, loot and leading execution of several intellectuals during nation's independence war against Pakistan 43 years ago.
Life in capital Dhaka and other major cities, however, remained largely normal as paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) forces kept a sharp vigil.
No immediate reaction of Jamaat was available, but ahead of the verdict it threatened another spell of general strike in Bangladesh if its other leaders were sentenced to death for war crimes.
The party's acting chief, Mujibur Rahman had alleged that the government was "plotting" to eliminate its top brass.
Similar verdicts against some of Nizami's top lieutenants earlier plunged the nation into one of its worst crises last year as tens of thousands of Jamaat activists clashed with police, leaving several hundreds dead. Ali was the last among the Jamaat stalwarts to get the verdict on war crimes charges.
He was indicted on September 5 on 14 charges including murder, abduction and torture, and the tribunal wrapped the trial hearing on May 4 this year keeping it pending for the judgment.
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