Bangladesh court upholds death sentence for Islamist leader

DHAKA – Reuters

Bangladesh's Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, center, walks out of the Supreme Court after a review petition of Jamaat-e-Islami party's senior leader Motiur Rahman Nizami's appeal against his death sentence was dismissed, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016. AP Photo

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for a top Islamist party leader on Jan. 6 for atrocities committed during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan more than four decades ago, a government lawyer said. 

Four opposition politicians, including three leaders of the Islamist party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, have been convicted by a war crimes tribunal and executed since late 2013. 

The executions have come amidst a rise in Islamist militant violence in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, with militant groups claiming the murder of two foreigners and four secular writers and a publisher last year. 

The court rejected an appeal by Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami, who was sentenced to death in 2014 by the tribunal for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the 1971 war. 

“The court upheld the death sentence. We are happy with the verdict,” state prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told Reuters. 

Jamaat-e-Islami, which has said the charges against Nizami to be baseless, called for a nationwide strike on Thursday in protest. 

Nizami, a former legislator and minister under opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s last term as prime minister, has been in jail since 2010 when he was charged with war crimes by the tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that year. 

Islamists have denounced the tribunal as part of a politically motivated campaign aimed at weakening the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key ally of the country’s main opposition party. 

Nizami could be hanged within months unless the Supreme Court reviews his case again, or he is granted clemency by the president. 

“My client will decide whether he will file a review petition,” chief defence prosecutor Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters. 

The government has blamed the increase in Islamist violence on the Jamaat-e-Islami but the party denies any link to the militant attacks.