Staff Reporter :
An International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday awarded death penalty to former ‘Razakar’ commander and Brahmanbaria Awami League leader Mobarak Hossain for killing, abduction and torture during the Liberation War in 1971. The ICT-1 Chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim pronounced the order. The tribunal awarded him the capital punishment for killing 33 people on the west bank of Ganga Sagar Dighi in Brahmanbaria on October 24, 1971, while life term imprisonment for abducting and torturing Abdul Khaleque of Satian village on November 11 the same year. Soon after the war criminal was produced before the ICT-1, the three-member panel started reading out the 92-page verdict around 11:20am. Justice Anwarul Haque, a panel member, read out the background and trial proceedings of the case.
After he completed, the other judge of the panel, Justice Jahangir Hossain, placed the tribunal’s observation on Mobarak.
Mobarak was involved in murder, abduction and torture while serving as a member of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1971. The 64-year-old war criminal also served as the AL organising secretary of a union parishad unit for 16 years till 2012. He, as a commander of the Razakar force, substantially “participated in”, “contributed to” and “facilitated” the commission of crimes in different parts of Brahmanbaria in 1971, the prosecution say. Twelve prosecution witnesses including the investigation officer of the case testified against the war crimes accused, while two-Mobarak himself and his son-testified as defence witnesses. On April 23 last year, the tribunal indicted Mobarak for his alleged war crimes. Khodeja Begum, daughter of Abdul Khalek, filed a case against Mobarak with a Brahmanbaria court in 2009. The case was later transferred to the Tribunal-1. An investigation agency, designated to probe war crimes, on January 23 last year completed the probe into Mobarak’s alleged involvement in crimes against humanity.
