Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals
BANGLADESH: Leader of Jamaat-e-Islami hanged
Bangladesh has hanged for war crimes the Assistant Secretary General of the opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Abdul Quader Mollah, convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) of rape, murder and mass murder, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. Mollah is the first person to be executed for the violence committed during the country's war of Independence in 1971. Clashes between opposition activists and police have occurred in many regions of the country, with more than 230 deaths since January 2013. Critics of the tribunal denounce it has been used by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to weaken the opposition for the upcoming elections on January 5. Supporters of the Tribunal, that had asked for Mollah’s life sentence to be changed to a death sentence, celebrated that the victims of the 1971 violence had received justice. The UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, had asked the government of Bangladesh to halt Mollah’s execution. By the end of the month, Abdus Subhan, another leader of JI, had been charged with war crimes by the ICTB. (Jurist, 09/12/13; Al-Jazeera, 10, 12, and 13/12/13; BBC, 31/12/13)