The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh (ICT) on Thursday sentenced three individuals in Mymensingh’s Gaffargaon upazila to jail unto death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Shahinur Islam, also sentenced five people to 20 years’ imprisonment in the case, reports UNB.
The convicts jailed unto death are Md Shamsuzzaman alias Abul Kalam, AFM Foyjullah and Abdur Razzak Mandal. Of them, Foyjullah and Razzak were tried in absentia.
Those who were handed 20 years’ jail term are Khalilur Rahman, Mohammad Abdullah, Md Rois Uddin Azadi alias Akkel Ali, Alim Uddin Khan and Sirajul Islam Tota. Among them, Alim Uddin is still on the run.
The tribunal acquitted Abdul Latif from the charges.
Meanwhile, police said a man claiming to be AFM Foyjullah, one of the fugitives, had gone to the court premises to surrender himself.
He reached the court before the tribunal started pronouncing the verdict, but law enforcers stopped him from entering the establishment.
Later, Shahbag police took him into custody and arrested him under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Deputy Commissioner Sazzadur Rahman of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Ramna Division) said: “After Mymensingh police ascertain his identity, they will either take him to Mymensingh from Dhaka, or the DMP will produce him before the lower court, which will take steps to show him arrested in the war crimes case.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the tribunal had fixed Thursday for delivering its judgment in the case, as reported by UNB.
Prosecutors Sultan Mahmud Simon, Zahid Imam and Taposh Kanti Pal stood for the state while Advocate Abdus Sattar Palwan represented the accused.
On March 4, 2018, the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh framed charges against 11 suspects in Mymensingh for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
Five of the 11 accused — Md Shamsuzzaman alias Abul Kalam, Khalilur Rahman, Md Abdullah, Md Rois Uddin Azadi alias Akkel Ali and Abdul Malek Akand of Khurda Panashail village in Bhaluka upazila — were behind bars at the time.
Two of them — Abdul Malek Akand and Nurul Amin Shahjahan (tried in absentia) — died during the trial proceedings.
They were charged with killing four people, and abducting and torturing nine others in Sadhura and Rouha villages of Gaffargaon during the Liberation War.
On February 20, 2017, the tribunal published the final report of the investigation in the case.
