Staff Reporter :The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 handed death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami’s executive committee member and chairman of Diganta Media Corporation Mir Quasem Ali for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.The 62-year-old Mir Quasem one of the main financiers of the party, was found guilty of murder, abduction and torture. He was awarded the death sentence for leading Al-Badr force in torturing freedom fighters at a hotel in Chittagong. Ten out of 14 charges were proved against him, said the Tribunal while delivering the verdict on Sunday.He got highest penalty for two charges. The Tribunal also awarded him a 72-year sentence for the other charges.A three-member tribunal, headed by its chairman Justice Obaidul Hassan, pronounced the 351-page verdict in presence of the accused in the dock. The judges read out the 11-page summary of the verdict. Police earlier brought Mir Quasem to the Tribunal in the morning amid tight security in and around the court. On Friday, the Jamaat leader was brought to Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur for the delivery of the judgment.This is the second verdict in two weeks. Last week, the ICT-1 handed death penalty to Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Maualana Matiur Rahman Nizami also for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.The two charges against Mir Quasem: One charge is torture and killing of adolescent freedom fighter Jasim along with five unidentified people after Eid-ul-Fitr of 1971 at Dalim Hotel at Andorkilla in Chittagong after abduction. The other charge is kidnapping of Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Ranjit Das Prokash Latu and Tuntu Sen in November, 1971. Latu and Tuntu were later killed and their bodies were never found.Mir Quasem and his counsels rejected the verdict. Mir Quasem uttered hard words just after the verdict. Wearing a light blue shirt under a beige coat, the convict was hearing the judgment sitting in the dock. When the death sentence was pronounced, he turned grave and uttered “devils, devils.” He pronounced the word for the judges. He said, “False events … false witnesses … black law … hatched-up verdict. The truth will prevail soon…soon,” he shouted.The defence counsels, however, said that they were deprived of justice. They will appeal with the Supreme Court. “The verdict was based on false witness accounts. We expect that we will get justice in Supreme Court,” defence counsel Mizanul Islam said in his reaction after the verdict.Meanwhile, the prosecution team expressed their satisfaction over the verdict. Zead al-Malum, a prosecutor of the tribunal, said that the verdict would go a long way toward ending the culture of impunity over war crimes in Bangladesh. After six months of closing the trial, the ICT-2 on Thursday set Sunday to pronounce its judgment on war crimes accused Mir Quasem Ali. Plainclothes police in compliance with the tribunal’s order arrested the Jamaat leader from his office– Daily Nayadiganta– in the city on June 17 last year, two hours after the tribunal issued the order. Mir Quasem was also a director of Islami Bank. He is also the founder of Ibn Sina Trust and director of the non-government organisation – Rabita al-Alam al-Islami.On May 4, the Tribunal kept pending the verdict to be delivered any day after formally closing law-point arguments from both sides in the trial. On May 26, 2013, the tribunal took cognizance of the charges against Mir Quasem. On September 5, 2013, the Tribunal indicted the Jamaat leader for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Mir Quasem faced 12 out of 14 counts of charges of crimes against humanity during the war. The prosecution could not place evidence on two charges due to failure of bringing its witnesses before the tribunal.
