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| Bangladesh |
| Subhan's war crimes case verdict today |
| 2015-02-18 |
| [Dhaka Tribune] The war crimes tribunal is set to pronounce its verdict today in the case against Maulana Abdus Subhan, a senior leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, more than two months after the case proceedings ended. Subhan was made accused in 1972 by a special tribunal for collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces and summoned. But he had already fled to Pakistan with former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, according to the prosecution. The three-member International Crimes Tribunal 2, led by its Chairman Justice Obaidul Hasan, yesterday fixed the date. Incumbent Nayeb-e-Ameer (vice-president) of Jamaat Subhan, 77, is facing nine charges of crimes against humanity including genocide and murders of unarmed people, mainly Hindus, along with looting and setting houses on fire in Pabna during the 1971 Liberation War. The charges are based on separate incidents taken place between April 13 and October 30 in which about 450 unarmed people were killed. Son of Sheikh Naimuddin and Nurani Begum of Tailakundi village of Sujanagar upazila in Pabna, Subhan in 1971 was the founding ameer of Pabna unit Jamaat and Majlish-e-Sura member of the erstwhile United Pakistan Jamaat. As the war began, Subhan was made general secretary of Pabna unit Peace Committee and later promoted to vice-chairman post of the associated body of the Pakistani Army. He was elected unopposed a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in late 1971. He resumed political career after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. In 2001, Subhan became a member of parliament from Pabna 5 constituency when the BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance came to power. Law enforcers arrested Subhan on September 20, 2012. The tribunal 1 indicted the alleged war criminal on December 31, 2013. The case was later shifted to the tribunal 2 for quick disposal. The prosecution placed 31 witnesses to testify against Subhan while none gave deposition defending the Jamaat leader. However, the tribunal had allowed three witnesses for him and the defence first said they would place two people. First prosecution witness ATM Shahiduzzaman Nasim, then a secretary of the Bangladesh Students' Union in Ishwardi, in his deposition told the tribunal that addressing a war criminal as a "Maulana" (religious scholar) was a sin. Third witness Md Abu Asad claimed that he had been forced to join Mujaheed Bahini ‐ a group of collaborators forced by Subhan and the Pakistani occupation forces. "The accused [Subhan] took us to the army camp near the Hardinge Bridge in Ishwardi and said 'I am Subhan from Pabna. As a Muslim, like me, you have to protect East Pakistan from today. If anyone tries to ignore this directive, he will be shot dead,'" the witness told the tribunal. Asad also said he had witnessed many rapes. "I saw how the collaborators violated a woman in front of her husband and shot her dead. We used to encircle the villages at the time of atrocities so that none of the villagers could escape the place." |
| Posted by:Fred |