06 February 2013, 03:52 PM IST
Bangladesh's ongoing trial of war criminals of that country's 1971 Liberation War produced a second conviction yesterday. Following its maiden verdict on January 21 that handed Abul Kalam Azad, alias Bachchu Razakar, the death penalty for crimes against humanity, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) convicted Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The latter verdict has sparked off a heated debate about the integrity of the domestic tribunal. While the Jamaat has been vociferous in its criticism of the trial process - seven of its top leaders, including Mollah, have been incarcerated for directly and indirectly taking part in massacre of civilians in 1971 - and has been regularly holding violent hartals to disband the ICT, the latest verdict has also disillusioned proponents of the trial and its endeavour to achieve justice.
There is no denying that Mollah deserves the maximum punishment for his crimes. And the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, which forms the basis of the war crimes trial in Bangladesh, does empower the tribunal to award death penalty as the maximum possible punishment. There is no doubt either that the charges Mollah stands accused of are of the gravest nature. The five charges that were proved beyond doubt include killing of one Bangla College student, killing of pro-Liberation poet Meherun Nesa and her mother and brothers, killing of journalist Khondoker Abu Taleb, involved in the killing of 344 people in Alubdi village in Mirpur and killing of one Hazrat Ali and five members of his family.
In 1971 Mollah was a member of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of the Jamaat which had been converted into the Al badr anti-Liberation force. The latter systematically targeted pro-Liberation civilians, minority Hindus and, towards the final months of the Liberation struggle, Bengali intellectuals to devoid Bangladesh of leadership and merit. Considering this, if the ICT thought it fit to hand the death sentence to Bachchu Razakar - an expelled Jamaat member who is currently on the run - it defies logic as to why it would give Mollah life imprisonment for crimes that were similar, if not worse.
It is pertinent to note that a day before Mollah's verdict the Jamaat had openly declared that Bangladesh would plunge into civil war should their assistant secretary be convicted. It won't be completely irrational to suggest that the tribunal's soft-peddling is linked to the Jamaat threat. If that is indeed the case, the very purpose of the tribunal gets defeated. For, the war crimes trial is meant to achieve a sense of closure for the millions of victims of 1971. It is an insult to the memory of the matyrs and their family members if the verdicts are influenced by external threats. Three million Bangladeshi citizens did not lay down their lives for this.
The prosecution in the Mollah case must explore the modalities to appeal against the verdict and push for a death sentence in the appellate division of the Supreme Court. Since yesterday, thousands of Bangladeshi citizens from all walks of life have been holding candlelight vigils and sit-in protests demanding death penalty in the Mollah case. Their voices must be heard. If there is at all a silver lining in the Mollah verdict it is that it has proved the independence of the war crimes tribunal. For, the ruling Awami League and its coalition partners would love nothing more than to see Abdul Quader Mollah get his just deserts - a poll promise they had made in 2008.
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