War Criminal Mueen in UK: Nirmul Committee slams ‘audacious’ lawsuit, hails Patel

Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee yesterday congratulated  UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for branding Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin -- a British Muslim leader facing the death penalty in Bangladesh for alleged war crimes -- a war criminal.

In a press statement, leaders of the committee -- working to ensure justice for atrocities committed during the Liberation War -- condemned Mueen's "audacious" act of filing a lawsuit against the Home Secretary over the remark.

"After the victory in the Liberation War, a notification was  published in the national dailies to hold  Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, the mastermind behind killing of intellectuals. Based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and victims in the tribunal, he was sentenced to death for the murder of 16 intellectuals including Prof Munier Chowdhury and Prof Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, but the sentence could not be executed since Mueen was in Britain," reads the statement.

The committee leaders alleged that mass murderers like Mueen and Ashrafuzzaman are getting political asylum in those countries (UK and USA respectively)  due to flaws in the legal system of western countries.

"The governments and civil society of these countries must realise that there is no alternative to justice and punishment for the perpetrators of genocide, if the world is to be freed from heinous crimes against humanity," it added.

It said if these countries continue to give asylum to horrific perpetrators of genocide, then they will never be able to win the declared 'war on terror', because these people are involved in various militant activities.

 "To maintain communal harmony, rule of law in these countries and to build a terror-free society and state, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman should be sent back to Bangladesh for execution immediately," the statement further added.

They hoped that the Bangladesh's foreign ministry will take more effective diplomatic steps to bring back the fugitive assassins of Bangabandhu as well as the war criminals convicted by the tribunal.

Chowdhury Mueen Uddin sued UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for £60,000 in libel damages, alleging that he was defamed in a Home Office report last year.

Mueen alleges the report libeled him by stating that he was responsible for serious criminal violence, including crimes against humanity, during Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971.