Bangladeshi tribunal jails 1971 war crime suspect

Dhaka: A special Bangladeshi tribunal yesterday sentenced Gulam Azam, described as the "key collaborator" of the then Pakistani junta during the 1971 liberation war, to jail after rejecting his bail plea.

"The petition is rejected," chairman of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Justice Nizamul Haque said. Witnesses and lawyers at the tribunal said Haque pronounced the order as prosecution lawyers opposed the bail plea, saying Azam could influence his trial process if he was kept out of the prison. He faces charges of committing crimes against humanity.

Lawyers representing Azam, chief of the erstwhile East Pakistan wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which opposed Bangladesh's 1971 independence and a provincial minister under the then Pakistani junta in 1971, said he was nearly 90 and needed the bail on medical grounds.

Security around the ICT complex at the old High Court was stepped up. The tribunal had issued a summons for Azam two days ago, taking into cognizance the charges against him.

Azam's party had opposed Bangladesh's independence in 1971, with many of its activists joining the auxiliary forces of Pakistani troops.

The prosecution earlier brought 52 charges of war crimes against Azam, insisting he had a role in the Pakistani troops' notorious ‘Operation Searchlight' of March 25, 1971, when they targeted unarmed civilians.

In a recent television interview, he, however, denied the charges, saying: "I did not do anything for which I will have to seek apology to the nation".

"What I did, I had done for the benefit of the people, to save people," he told Baishakhi TV.