Ex-MP Sakhawat gets death penalty for war crimes

Former Jamaat-e-Islami MP Sakhawat Hossain has been sentenced to death for his crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971. International Crimes Tribunal headed by Justice Anwarul Haque gave the verdict on Wednesday afternoon. All the five charges –abduction, confinement, torture, rape and murder of Bangalis– have been proven against him. Sakhawat was awarded death penalty for the torture and murder of Chandtulya Gazi and his son Atiyar of Keshabpur upazila’s Chingra village and abduction, torture and murder of Abdul Malek Sardar of Keshabpur Upazila’s Hijaldanga village and abduction. The tribunal also sentenced seven others to imprisonment until death. They are Md Billal Hossain, Md Ibrahim Hossain, Sheikh Md Mujibur Rahman, Md Abdul Aziz Sarder, Qazi Ohidul Islam alias Wahidur Salam, Md Aziz Sarder and Abdul Khalek Morol. Another accused, Lutfor Morol, died of cardiac arrest in police custody on May 6 this year. Seventeen witnesses testified against the accused. Sakhawat, a former MP from Jessore, was arrested in Dhaka in 2014. The tribunal indicted the nine accused on December 23 last year. Suspected war criminals were put on trial after the Awami League led government formed the tribunal in 2010. Most of the convicts belong to Jamaat-e-Islami, a party which openly opposed Bangladesh’s liberation. The party claims the tribunal falls short of international standard and accuses the government of carrying out a political vendetta, a charge the government denies.