HRDB NEWSLETTER

The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangla-

desh (ICT) condemned Ali Ahsan Mohammad

Mujahid, a senior politician from Jamaat-e-

Islami (JeI) and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury,

a leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nation-

alist Party (BNP), in 2013 after convicting them

of crimes during Bangladeshs war of inde-

pendence in 1971.

After their convictions and death sentences

were upheld earlier this year, the two filed

review petitions, which are to be heard by the

countrys top court on November 17.

Amnesty International said Mujahid and Chow-dhury's trials failed to meet international standards.

The rights organization said two weeks ago, since they now face the death penalty, the ultimate miscarriage of justice may be only days away.

Since the ICT was set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government in 2010, several opposition leaders have been prosecuted for war crimes. Two, both JeI leaders, have been executed.

The cases of Mujahid and Chowdhury have been mired in controversy.

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheeds appeal to the Supreme Court failed to dismiss the prose-cutions claim that he had instigated his subor-dinates to commit human rights abuses, when no subordinates had either been identified or testified on record.

Chowdhury has maintained that he was away in Karachi in April 1971 when the offenses he was charged with are said to have occurred.

Chowdhurys relatives, supporters and others have sworn in affidavits they were with him in what was then known as West Pakistan in April 1971, but the tribunal ruled the affidavits inad-missible.

Everyone is pushing for the execution of these people. When you talk to them and ask 'do you know what the nature of these trials has been?' they say, 'it doesn't matter, they have to be executed.' That is really very, very strange, said Abbas Faiz, the senior south Asia researcher of Amnesty International

Bangladesh is seeking a hasty end to a judi-cial process that is really flawed, he added.

Alex Carlile, a senior British lawyer and a member of House of Lords, said that Chow-dhury has not received a fair trial.

"For example, Mr. Chowdhury was not allowed to call all the defense witnesses he wished to call," Carlile told VOA. "His lawyers were put under pressure as has been the cases in many of the trials before this tribunal.

The ICT has a history of following some extraordinarily improper procedure and there were clear examples of its judgments having been written by people who had no connection with the tribunal, Carlile said.

There have been examples of lawyers being put under intolerable pressure. Make no mis-take, to the jurists around the world, and I speak as one of them, the way which the ICT trials have been conducted is offensive and it puts Bangladesh in a very poor light, he said.

Like previous controversial judgments de-livered by the ICT, Mr Mujahid and Mr Chowdhurys trial and appeal proceedings were marked by serious flaws in blatant violation of fair trial rights. These include the failure of the ICT judges to apply the proper legal principles, the arbitrary re-striction by the ICT judges of the number of defence witnesses and the appearance of bias on the part the ICT against defendants. Almost all of the ICTs verdicts have been handed down against members of opposi-tion parties, mainly key leaders of the Ja-maat-e-Islami party, since its establishment in 2009.

Human Rights and Development for Bangladesh Newsletter #4-15 16 November 2015

Mujahid and Chowdhury's trials failed to meet international standards

Ultimate Miscarriage of Justice

only Few days away Review petitions to be heard by the countrys top court on November 17

Statement by Alison Smith, Legal Counsel of No Peace With-

out Justice:

No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) and the Nonviolent Radical

Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT) reiterate their

strong concerns about the repeated and continued violations by

the Bangladesh judicial authorities of fair trial rights in the enforce-

ment of crimes under international law.

Through the persistent exclusion of due process guarantees and

the application of the death penalty, the International Crimes Tri-

bunal (ICT) will not achieve its established aim of delivering justice

for victims and addressing the massive atrocities committed dur-

ing the nine-month conflict in 1971, from which Bangladesh trau-

matically emerged as an independent State and which haunt the

country to this day.

The latest controversial judgments handed down against Mr Mu-

jahid and Mr Chowdhury further reinforce the perception that the

ICTs proceedings are a weapon of politically influenced revenge

whose real aim is to target a legitimate political opposition. In its

current form, the ICT will only contribute to create further violence

and division, not the reconciliation that the people of Bangladesh

deserve.

Bangladesh cannot continue to ignore the very legitimate con-

cerns and persistent demands for reform raised both domestically

and internationally, including through official rulings by United Na-

tions bodies. This means first and foremost the immediate and

categorical exclusion of the death penalty for individuals accused

by ICT and the application in full of all due process guarantees,

including protection of defence witnesses, potential witnesses and

counsel from harassment and intimidation; full application of the

presumption of innocence; and all other due process rights, to the

highest international standards.

We call on the international community to insist that Bangladesh

live up to these standards. In particular, we call on the European

Union, through its Delegation currently present in Bangladesh, to

take concrete steps to ensure that Bangladesh complies with its

international human rights and other treaty obligations. Foremost

among these is to raise the death sentence against of Mr Mujahid

and Mr Chowdhury, which can be prevented if enough pressure is

brought to bear. The European Union must retake its leadership

on human rights by doing everything it can to avert the miscar-

riage of justice these executions would represent.

Source: www.npwj.org/

EU should act decisively

in impending

miscarriage of justice

International Views on International

Crimes Tribunal

Human Rights and Development for Bangladesh (HRDB) / email: humanrightsbd@gmail.com

ICT offers a real opportunity to address the crimes of the past. However, in its present form, it does nothing more than offer politi-cal retribution, given that the original trial and the decision by the appellate division of the Supreme Court do not address the very legitimate concerns raised both do-mestically and internationally. 1

In general, the ICT has not achieved its estab-

lished aim of bringing justice to those who committed crimes of an international char-acter during the 1971 conflict. Instead, it has offered politically influenced revenge and provided a mechanism by which a le-gitimate political opposition can be attacked. 1

As warned by Sir Desmond de Silva, a promi-

nent British lawyer, and former United Na-tions Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone, the shortcomings of the ICT together with a failure to establish an international tribunal have effectively created further violence and division without the reconcili-ation the people of Bangladesh deserve. To overcome the current situation, the Gov-ernment of Bangladesh should establish such a tribunal and allow the people of Bangladesh the opportunity to achieve real justice and redress.

The use of a war crimes tribunal to consider

actions taken during a civil war is a pro-found responsibility, and its credibility - as well as the credibility of similar tribunals around the world depends on the highest standards of due process," Senator Patric Lehay wrote in a recent letter to Bangla-desh Ambassador to the US.

1. No Peace Without Justice