AMN /
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh today rejected the review petitions of death row war criminals Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. A four-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the two orders today. The International Crimes Tribunal had sentenced the two top opposition politicians to death for war crimes during the 1971 liberation War.
Ali Ahsan Mojaheed, 67, General Secretary of Jamaat -e-Islami, and former Minister in Khaleda-Zia led BNP-Jamaat coalition government was convicted on July 17, 2013 for his role in eliminating the intellectuals at the fag end of the Liberation War with the aim of aborting the birth of Bangladesh.
Salauddin Quader, six-time former MP from Chittagong, was convicted on October 1, 2013 for mass slaughter and torture of Hindus and Awami League supporters. The Supreme Court had in June and July this year upheld the death sentences in both cases, and the ICT had issued the two death warrants on Oct. 1, 2015, a day after the Supreme Court released the full verdicts.
The International Crimes Tribunals were set up by the Hasina government in 2010, almost 40 years after the 1971 Liberation War which left an estimated 3 million dead, and over 2 lakh women raped.