Expelled Awami League leader and former member of Jamaat-e-Islami, Mobarak Hossain has been sentenced to death for war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War.
The International Crimes Tribunal 1 said in its judgement the judges were agreed Mobarak Hossain “deserved the highest punishment”.
Justice M Enayetur Rahim, heading the three-member tribunal said on Monday that his crimes — abduction, confinement, torture and murder — were “shocking to the conscience of humanity”. The first charge, for which Mobarak is to hang, has him participating in the murder of 33 unarmed civilians in a village under Akhaura sub-district in Brahmanbaria.
Mobarak’s death sentence comes with another sentence of life in prison, which Justice Rahim said would naturally merge with the death penalty.
The judges found him guilty in two out of five charges and acquitted him from the rest.
Also known as Mobarak Ali, he went on to join Awami League and rose to become the organising secretary of Mugra union unit in Akhaura upazila of Brahmanbaria. He served in that position for 16 years until 2012. Later he was expelled from the ruling party.
He had joined Jamaat-e-Islami after the war, however, and rose to the rank of full member — Rukn — of Jamaat-e-Islami. Mobarak was an active collaborator of the Pakistani Army during the Liberation War.
Justice Jahangir Hossain of the tribunal said on Monday in light of the arguments and evidence, “We may legitimately infer that Mobarak did participate in the atrocities.”
He said the judges were convinced that Mobarak was a potential member of the Razakars, a vigilante band of collaborators mostly manned by Jamaat-e-Islami and some other political parties that favoured Pakistan over Bangladesh.
Khodeja Begum, daughter of martyr Abdul Khaleque, filed a case against Mobarak with a Brahmanbaria court on May 3, 2009. The case was later transferred to the war crimes tribunal. Mobarak got life in prison for his role in Khaleque’s abduction and subsequent murder.
An investigation team on January 23, 2013 completed the probe into Mobarak’s alleged crimes against humanity.
The prosecution submitted formal charges on February 25 and the court took the charges into cognisance onMarch 12. The tribunal indicted Mobarak on April 23.
The prosecution ended their closing arguments on May 19 seeking death for Mobarak while the defence closed their arguments the following day.
The full verdict is attached below
