Dhaka: A tribunal in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Sunday handed down the death penalty to two non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in absentia for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s war of independence in 1971.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 pronounced the verdict on Sunday afternoon on crimes against humanity case, awarding death sentences to Chowdhury Moinuddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who were allegedly leaders of Al-Badar, an auxiliary group of the then Pakistan army, Xinhua reported.
Justice Obaidul Hassan, head judge of ICT-2, announced that all the 11 charges, which include mass killings, murder, genocide and conspiracy to kill intellectuals during the country’s Liberation War in 1971, against Al-Badar leaders were proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The Al-Badar leaders were charged with the murder of 18 intellectuals – nine professors, six journalists and three doctors – at the end of the war. The three-member panel of the ICT-2 read the summary of the 154-page verdict at a jam-packed court room in the presence of a huge crowd of people, particularly journalists and lawyers, amid tightened security in and around the tribunal. Since Jan 21 this year, two tribunals dealing with war crimes cases have so far delivered verdicts in eight cases. (IANS)
