Bangladesh Tribunal Sentences Two To Death For 1971 War Crimes

A special Bangladesh tribunal today handed out death sentences to two people for crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war and for aiding Pakistani troops.

"They will be hanged by neck until they are dead," pronounced the chair of the three-judge International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) Mohammad Shahinur Islam after the trial of both convicts.

The convicts, in their early 60s, are absconding.

Prosecution lawyers had accused them of murdering around 100 people, mostly minority Hindus, in their neighbourhood while siding with Pakistani enemy troops.

They were defended by state-appointed counsels during their trial. 

One of the convicts, Liakat Ali, was president of the Awami League's Lakhai sub-district in northeastern Kishorganj.

Fifty-three people, mostly leaders of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami which opposed Bangladesh's independence, have been sentenced to death for their acts during the war while some of the convicts were from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Seven war criminals have been hanged so far after the Supreme Court upheld the tribunal's judgments while the rest of the cases are pending with the apex court.