Dhaka: In a significant legal development, a Bangladeshi court has overturned the death sentence of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Azharul Islam and ordered his immediate release, provided no other cases are pending against him.
The ruling came from a seven-member appellate bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Dr. Syed Refaat Ahmed. The bench nullified the 2014 death sentence issued by a war crimes tribunal, which had convicted Azharul Islam of crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
On December 30, 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal had sentenced Azharul Islam to death for alleged war crimes. Although he appealed the decision, the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence on October 31. In July 2020, he filed a review petition challenging the verdict, on which the final decision was delivered today.
Following the court’s decision, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman addressed a press conference, calling the verdict “a victory for justice.” “We did not seek revenge, only justice,” he said. “This decision proves that justice cannot be suppressed.”
The International Crimes Tribunals were established in 2010 under the directive of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, with the mandate to try alleged war crimes committed during the 1971 conflict. Since their inception, most of those convicted have been senior members of Jamaat-e-Islami, a party that opposed Bangladesh’s secession from Pakistan.
Jamaat-e-Islami has consistently maintained that the cases against its leaders were politically motivated. Critics of the tribunals have echoed similar concerns, alleging that the judicial process lacked transparency and was used as a tool to target political opposition.
