Monday, May 14, 2012

Ex-Jamaat chief indicted for war crimes in 1971 Bangladesh war

A special Bangladeshi tribunal on Sunday indicted an 89-year-old former chief of fundamentalist Jamaat- e-Islami on 61 charges for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, months after he was arrested.

"The International Crimes Tribunal indicted Prof Ghulam Azam for five types of crimes he committed during 1971 Liberation War" fighting with the Pakistani troops, prosecuting lawyer Syed Rezaur Rahman told a news agency.
"The charges has been framed against you on the basis of the chargesheet," chairman of the three-judge panel of International Crimes Tribunal Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq told Azam after the fundamentalist leader was brought to the dock from the prison on a wheelchair under heavy security.
The tribunal read out the 61 charges against Azam under five categories including conspiracy, planning, incitement, complicity and murder during the nine-month war.
The panel set June 5 for starting trial against Azam, who pleaded not guilty after the charges were read out to him.
Azam was the former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami in the then East Pakistan wing of the fundamentalist party and provincial minister under the Pakistani junta in 1971.
The prosecution earlier described him as the "key collaborator" of the then Pakistani junta alleging he masterminded the alleged atrocities including genocides or mass murders of Bengalis during the Liberation War.
According to the Bangladeshi authorities, up to three million people were killed in the bloody war. Azam rejected the charges calling them "politically motivated" as the tribunal asked him if was "guilty or not"."I don't think myself guilty," said Azam, who has been kept at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University since his arrest on January 11, 2012.
Azam's party opposed Bangladesh's 1971 independence with many of its activists joining the auxiliary forces of the Pakistani troops.

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