Bangladesh to seize assets of war criminals, killers of Mujib
Government will enact a new law to confiscate properties; army veterans welcome the move
The Bangladesh Parliament has moved to impound all
movable and immovable assets of the assassins of the nation’s founding
father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and those convicted for war crimes in 1971.
A
resolution in this regard was passed unanimously on Thursday and was
welcomed by nation’s liberation war veterans and the war crimes trial
campaigners.
Welcoming the resolution, Law Minister
Anisul Huq said properties of the executed war criminals would be
confiscated after enacting a new law.
The minister also told Parliament that the government would also seize assets of the absconding killers of Mujibur Rahman.
Mujibur
Rahman was killed three-and-a-half years after the country’s
independence from Pakistan, along with most of his family members on
August 15, 1975, by a group of rogue army officers.
Their
trial was stopped through an Indemnity Ordinance that saved the
self-proclaimed killers. The ordinance was abrogated in November 1996
when the Awami League returned to power.
Following
the verdict in the case, five of the 12 killers were hanged on January
27, 2010. Six others are still absconding abroad. One died while hiding
in Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh Parliament had passed a
similar resolution for the trial of the alleged war criminals in 2010.
Following the resolution, the government set up The International Crimes
Tribunal on March 25, 2010 under a domestic law of 1973.
The two war crimes tribunals have so far convicted 50 people, almost half of them are absconding.
Five
top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and one of BNP have so far been hanged
for the crimes against humanity they committed during the Liberation
War. Some others, including Jamaat’s Delwar Hossain Sayedee, have been
jailed until death. The appeals of Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam and former
BNP minister Abdul Alim against their sentences were dismissed after
they died during the appeal hearings.
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