Chintito
Nuremberg Revisited
Ghulam Azam is considered to be one of the chief accomplices of the 1971 genocide. Photo: Palash Khan
For those who do not understand Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), set up in 2009 to prosecute those who committed genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, the Razakars, members of the Al-Badr and Al-Shaams during the War of Liberation in 1971, let it be said that the famous, most quoted Nuremberg Trial was held for equivalent reasons;
For those who argue forty years have elapsed, that evidence is not possible, let them be reminded that the hunt, prosecution, and trial of the Nazi criminals by the Allied forces continue till today, even after almost 70 years. Our War of Liberation and 1971 happened barely 40 years ago;
For those who claim that fairness is not ensured, as the defence has not been granted the opportunity to avail legal services, let it be known to all that the ICT, Bangladesh allows the defendants the option to select their own lawyers, including foreigners. By contrast, the defendants at the Nuremberg Trial were handed out 'state'-appointed defence lawyers. At the tribunal's planning stages, the US government supported Bangladesh's intent to “hold an open and transparent war crimes trial with the rights of defence for the accused", as evident in a statement of Stephan Rapp, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues;
For those who see selective persecution(even political provocation) because only a handful of leaders have been made to stand on the dock, it is for their information that after the World War II during which some 40 million died in Europe alone, only 24 leading persons were indicted before the court at the Nuremberg Trial;
Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Delawar Hossain Sayedee were arrested in the run-up to the trial. Photo: Star File
The Allied Forces of the World War II [Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States, and France, Poland, Northern Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa, as well as Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, the British Raj (India and us), Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway and Yugoslavia] held the trial of the 24most notorious political and military Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for less than a year from 20 November 1945 atthe ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi party, Nuremberg(Germany), and hence the appellation 'Nuremberg Trials'.
Here Bangladesh is the victorious force, the Muktijuddho is the war, and over a dozen political leaders who not only opposed the independence of Bangladesh but partook in murder, rape, arson, and plunder besides intimidation and threat on innocent unarmed Bangladeshis are the accused persons, and the trial process is going on since 2010 at its own pace, giving the defendants time and witnesses as pleaded.
The eight judges were two each (one main and an alternate) from Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, but being a military tribunal it had several military officers in the tribunal. Most of the defence lawyers were German, but all those who testified on behalf of the defence were found guilty on several counts.
The ICT judges are appointed by the government of Bangladesh. They are all civilians. The defence lawyers are all Bangladeshis.
The defence lawyers at Nuremberg were appointed by the victorious Allies. The defence in Bangladesh has the option to appoint their own lawyers.
The indictments (formal accusation of a serious crime, presented to a grand jury) were for: (1) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace, (2) Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace, (3) War crimes, and Crimes against humanity.
War crime has been defined in one instance as a serious violation of the laws applicable in armed conflict (also known as international humanitarian law) giving rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes include "murder, the ill-treatment, or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labour camps", "the murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war," the killing of prisoners, "the wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military, or civilian necessity."
Crimes against humanity, as defined, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of human beings." “They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape; political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice.”
The indictments in the ICT, Bangladesh are quite similar to Nuremberg. For instance:
Abul Kalam Azad, a TV personality having his own programme on Islam, also a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami, was charged with genocide, rape, abduction, confinement and torture. He had to be tried in absentia because he fled the country soon after a warrant was issued for his arrest; police believe he is in Pakistan.“In January 2013 Azad was the first suspect to be convicted in the trials; he was found guilty of seven of eight charges and sentenced to death by hanging. Azad's defence lawyer, a prominent Supreme Court lawyer appointed by the state, did not have any witnesses in the case; he said Azad's family failed to cooperate in helping locate witnesses and refused to testify.”
Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary of Jamaat was convicted on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. According to the charges, Mollah “actively participated” in the killing of at least 381 unarmed people in Dhaka's Mirpur and Keraniganj areas in six different incidents, and also aided the Pakistan Army to kill and rape civilians. He was first awarded Life imprisonment. The State appealed. Last week the Supreme Court awarded Mollah the death sentence.
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, an Islamic orator of some repute, and the deputy leader of Jamaat, was found guilty of genocide, rape and religious persecution. On 28 February last, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was on 9 May last convicted of crimes against humanity, and given the death penalty on five counts of mass killings, rape, torture, and kidnapping.
Ghulam Azam,i nfamous for masterminding atrocities during the war of independence as Jamaat's leader, was found guilty by the ICT on five counts of incitement, conspiracy, planning, abetment, and failure to prevent murder. He was sentenced last 15 July to 90 years imprisonment in consideration of his old age.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Jamaat secretary general, was found guilty in five of the seven charges. As they were "proved beyond doubt", the court sentenced him to death on two counts for personal involvement in the killings of several pro-liberation activists.
At the Nuremberg Trial, individual sentences were read out on a single afternoon, that of October 1, 1946. The ICT, Bangladesh has been handing out individual sentences at the conclusion of hearing, cross examination, statement and appeal.
Following the Nuremberg Trial, twelve of the accused were sentenced to death, seven received prison sentences, and three were acquitted. One was medically unfit (partially paralyzed) for trial, and the trial of another did not proceed.
The defendants at Nuremberg were not allowed to appeal. In the Bangladesh trials those convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity are allowed to appeal, and in fact those who have been convicted have appealed.
Only fifteen days after the single-day sentencing at Europe's Nuremberg, on 16 October 1946, the death sentences were carried out and all the twelve convicted were hung. The bodies of the twelve dead were incinerated in a crematorium in Munich, and the ashes scattered over the river Isar.
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