Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid failed to get a reprieve on Tuesday as his death sentence was upheld by the Appellate bench of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha’s four-member bench on Tuesday confirmed the death penalty for the 67-year old former commander of Al-Badr, the militia raised by Pakistan to crush the Bengali struggle for independence. The top court’s judgment was greeted with celebratory embraces and handshakes outside the courtroom and enlivened by full-throated slogans in the streets. It elicited jubilation and relief among war veterans and supporters of war crimes trial who had pushed for maximum penalty for Mujahid who unleashed his ‘angels of death’ on his own people in 1971. But those who suffered Mujahid’s brutality were certain no punishment was good enough for the Jamaat leader. This is the first time a politician who served as a minister is going to be executed for war crimes in Bangladesh. Mujahid, the social welfare minister in Khaleda Zia’s BNP-Jamaat coalition cabinet, planned and executed mass murders including those of intellectuals, scientists, academics and journalists during the war to abort Bangladesh’s birth. The war crimes tribunal ordered him—in his mid-20s in 1971—to walk the gallows on July 17, 2013 for the massacre of the intellectuals and involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus. Out of the seven charges levelled against him, the tribunal had found him guilty on five counts. He was given the death penalty in the first, sixth and seventh charges. The Jamaat secretary general got death for the first of the seven charges – abduction and murder of journalist Sirajuddin Hossain — which was “merged” with the sixth charge related to the murder of intellectuals. The Appellate Division took into account the first and sixth charge separately. Tuesday’s verdict acquitted Mujahid from the abduction and murder of Hossain but upheld the death penalty for the murder of intellectuals. The tribunal also had sentenced him to death for the seventh charge – murder and torture of Hindus – as well. The Appellate Division verdict commuted it to life in prison. He got life in prison for the fifth charge – confinement and torture of composer Altaf Mahmud, Jahir Uddin Jalal alias ‘Bichchhu Jalal’, Shafi Imam Rumi, Badiuzzaman, Abdul Halim Chowdhury Jewel and Magfar Ahmed Chowdhury Azad at an old MP Hostel in Dhaka’s Nakhalpara area. Everyone, except Jalal, was killed. The Supreme Court upheld the war crimes tribunal’s verdict on this charge. Mujahid was handed down a five-year prison term for the third charge – abduction and torture of Ranjit Nath alias Babu Nath of Faridpur’s Khabashpur. The final verdict upheld it. He was acquitted of the second and fourth charges that accused him of genocide in the Charvodrason Hindu village, and confinement and torture of one Abu Yusuf alias Pakhi. The appeals judges did not take the two charges into account for this reason. Mujahid is the fourth war crimes convict whose case has been resolved by the top court after the trials were started in 2010. · Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid failed to get a reprieve on Tuesday as his death sentence was upheld by the Appellate bench of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha’s four-member bench on Tuesday confirmed the death penalty for the 67-year old former commander of Al-Badr, the militia raised by Pakistan to crush the Bengali struggle for independence. The top court’s judgment was greeted with celebratory embraces and handshakes outside the courtroom and enlivened by full-throated slogans in the streets. It elicited jubilation and relief among war veterans and supporters of war crimes trial who had pushed for maximum penalty for Mujahid who unleashed his ‘angels of death’ on his own people in 1971. But those who suffered Mujahid’s brutality were certain no punishment was good enough for the Jamaat leader. This is the first time a politician who served as a minister is going to be executed for war crimes in Bangladesh. Mujahid, the social welfare minister in Khaleda Zia’s BNP-Jamaat coalition cabinet, planned and executed mass murders including those of intellectuals, scientists, academics and journalists during the war to abort Bangladesh’s birth. The war crimes tribunal ordered him—in his mid-20s in 1971—to walk the gallows on July 17, 2013 for the massacre of the intellectuals and involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus. Out of the seven charges levelled against him, the tribunal had found him guilty on five counts. He was given the death penalty in the first, sixth and seventh charges. The Jamaat secretary general got death for the first of the seven charges – abduction and murder of journalist Sirajuddin Hossain — which was “merged” with the sixth charge related to the murder of intellectuals. The Appellate Division took into account the first and sixth charge separately. Tuesday’s verdict acquitted Mujahid from the abduction and murder of Hossain but upheld the death penalty for the murder of intellectuals. The tribunal also had sentenced him to death for the seventh charge – murder and torture of Hindus – as well. The Appellate Division verdict commuted it to life in prison. He got life in prison for the fifth charge – confinement and torture of composer Altaf Mahmud, Jahir Uddin Jalal alias ‘Bichchhu Jalal’, Shafi Imam Rumi, Badiuzzaman, Abdul Halim Chowdhury Jewel and Magfar Ahmed Chowdhury Azad at an old MP Hostel in Dhaka’s Nakhalpara area. Everyone, except Jalal, was killed. The Supreme Court upheld the war crimes tribunal’s verdict on this charge. Mujahid was handed down a five-year prison term for the third charge – abduction and torture of Ranjit Nath alias Babu Nath of Faridpur’s Khabashpur. The final verdict upheld it. He was acquitted of the second and fourth charges that accused him of genocide in the Charvodrason Hindu village, and confinement and torture of one Abu Yusuf alias Pakhi. The appeals judges did not take the two charges into account for this reason. Mujahid is the fourth war crimes convict whose case has been resolved by the top court after the trials were started in 2010.– bdnews24.com
