The Bangladeshi authorities are set to execute two senior opposition politicians for alleged war crimes committed 45 years ago—by an International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that has been deemed “flawed” by international human rights organizations.
The convictions and death sentences of senior Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) politician Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, and senior Bangladesh National Party politician Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, were upheld this past summer. The government has speeded up their appeals processes and the review petitions of both men are scheduled to be heard on November 2.
David Griffiths, South Asia Research Director for Amnesty International, has stated that the appeals process was flawed and that if the executions are carried out, it would be the “ultimate miscarriage of justice.”
The Sheikh Hasina government established the ICT in 2010 to punish those accused of committing human rights atrocities during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971. It is widely alleged that the Pakistani Army and its collaborators, including members of the JeI, killed some three million Bangladeshis and raped hundreds of thousands of women during the war.
The International War Crime Tribunal Act of 1973 was originally passed to try nearly 200 alleged war criminals soon after Bangladesh achieved independence, and is the basis of the current trial process. A treaty signed between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, however, granted pardon to the alleged war criminals. The reinstatement of the ICT was one of the main platforms of Sheikh Hasina’s election manifesto. Previous governments had avoided prosecuting 1971 war crimes, fearing unanticipated repercussions.
Need for Credible War Crimes Process
Supporters of the ruling party have widely also supported a war crimes process, but the flawed procedural framework of the trials and the fact that only political opponents of the current government have been tried has given the strong impression that Hasina is misusing the ICT process to shut down her political opposition.
One of the original chief justices of the ICT, Justice Nizamul Huq, resigned in December 2012 following media leaks of Skype conversations in which he admitted to being under strong pressure from the government to convict the defendants quickly.
The ICT has convicted several opposition politicians and already executed two JeI leaders in the last two years. Salauddin Chowdhury was the first sitting member of parliament to be tried by the tribunal.
Given the flawed procedural framework of the ICT and the strong perception of politicization of the process, the U.S. should press the Hasina government to address international concerns surrounding the legal proceedings. Failure to do so not only would constitute a major travesty of justice, but would also further undermine democracy in Bangladesh, in addition to reinforcing concerns about Sheikh Hasina’s increasingly autocratic style of governance.
