BANGLADESH: DEATH PENALTY FOR 4 WAR CRIMINALS

July 18, 2018:

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 found four Moulvibazar men guilty of committing genocide during the Liberation War and handed down death penalty on all of them.
The 4, who were members of notorious Razakar force, have also been given jail until death for another charge -- committing crimes against humanity. However, the jail term would naturally be merged into the death sentence, the tribunal said.
"In the case in hand, it stands proved that the accused persons were conscious and a culpable part of the common design and criminal enterprise," the 3-member tribunal observed.
"Their [the convicts'] culpable acts and conduct as have been found proved formed a part of attacks which was intended to wipe out the Hindu civilians, freedom fighters and pro-liberation civilians," it added.
Among the convicts, Akmal Ali Talukder, 76, is now in jail and was hauled before the tribunal yesterday. Other convicts Abdun Nur Talukder alias Lal Miah, 62, Anis Miah, 76, and Abdul Musabbir Miah, 64, are on the run. All of them are from Rajnagar upazila of the district.
The tribunal handed down death penalty on the 4 convicts for an act of genocide where 59 Hindu men of Panchgaon village under Rajnagar upazila were killed, Hindu women were raped and at least 132 houses were looted and torched between May 7 and 8, 1971.
With the latest verdict, the war crimes tribunals have so far delivered 33 judgements against 73 people. 47 of them have been sentenced to death.