The opposition BNP has for the first time broken its silence on the war crimes trial, slamming the government decision to scrap the voting rights of war crimes convicts.
“The decision to drop the names of war criminals from the voter list is totally against humanity. This is illegal and against the rule of law,” opposition spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists at a press briefing at its Nayapaltan office on Wednesday.
The cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the Voter List (second amendment) Act 2013 with provisions for disqualifying wartime collaborators and convicted war criminals from enlisting as voters.
The provision will apply for those convicted under the International Crimes Tribunal (amendment) Act 2009 and the Collaborators Act 1972.
Condemning the move, Mirza Fakhrul, also BNP’s acting secretary general, said: “The cases are still under trial with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. So, such a decision is a conspiracy against citizen’s fundamental rights.”
Fakhrul also urged the government to retract the decision.
BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdury and a former minister of Ziaur Rahman cabinet Abdul Alim are now facing trials at the International Crimes Tribunal for crimes committed against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.