A tribunal court Monday sentenced top Islamist leader and former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Ghulam Azam for 90 years in jail for allegedly war-time atrocities during 1971 Bangladesh independence war.

Dhaka, July 15/Nationalturk – The top Islamist leader and former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Ghulam Azam was Monday sentenced for 90 years in jail by a tribunal court for allegedly engineering war-time atrocities during 1971 Bangladesh independence war.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 announced today that  91-year-old Ghulam Azam was found guilty by the war crimes tribunal of all five categories of crime – incitement, conspiracy, planning, abetment and failure to prevent murder.

“For the first two charges he was given 20 years, for the third and fourth 20 years each and for the fifth another 30 years,” a judgement delivered by International Crimes Tribunal (ICJ) reads.

ICJ is not an international court but is the local court set up by Bangladesh to try people for committing violence against its own people during war of independence in 1971.  The Bangladesh tribunal is not endorsed by the United Nations. The New York-based Human Rights Watch group has said its procedures fall short of international standards.

The presiding judge of ICJ Justice A T M Fazle Kabir said Azam will serve consecutively.

Azam took part in killings: Court

Another judge Justice Jahangir Hossain, read out a part of the 243-page verdict, saying “Azam in effect took part in the killing by giving ‘negative signals’ to sub-ordinates. That’s why he is ‘criminally liable’ and found guilty.”

However, the court  stopped short of awarding death penalty to the 91-year-old high profile Jamaat leader in view of his old age.

A prosecution official said Azam will spend the rest of his life in jail. “He will be in jail until he dies,” he said.

Heavy security measures were taken in and around the courtroom, where the verdict was announced. Police and other security personnel were deployed in strength in sensitive areas in capital Dhaka and other places, where Jamaat-e-Islami has a huge following.

Jamaat had called national-wide strike today against the court verdict. The strike was more effective in pro-Jamaat areas with Jamaat workers taking to roads and staging anti-government demonstrations. They also clashed with police and paramilitary personnel at many places.

According to prosecution, Azam was among the key people who pioneered anti-Liberation efforts in 1971 colluding with the Pakistani military junta of that time. He is widely perceived to have been among the core group of right-wing backers of the Pakistani Army, who came out strongly in support of a united Pakistan and mobilised infamous social platforms centrally.

“He was instrumental in setting up the infamous Peace Committee at the national level. The Razakars, an auxiliary force set up mainly to actively thwart the liberation forces, are said to have been mobilised through the Peace Committees across Bangladesh,” they alleged.

Verdict is travesty of Justice: Jamaat

Ghulam Azam’s counsel termed the judgement as not appropriate. “We would appeal against verdict in the Supreme Court,” they said

The chief Jamaat counsel, Abdur Razzaq, also the party’s Assistant Secretary General, said

“It was a travesty of justice. We will most certainly appeal against this decision,” Jamaat’s assistant secretary general Abdur Razzaq.

The Jamaat leader Azam is in detention. He was arrested on January 11 last year.

After Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in December 1971, Azam fled the country. He stayed in London for seven years and after the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding father  Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, he returned to country in 1978 during BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s rule. Azam retired from active politics in 1999. His party remains a key ally of the main opposition BNP, which has expressed its anger and resentment over the verdicts against Jamaat leaders and termed it as “political vendetta”.

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk Bangladesh News

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