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| Bangladesh |
| Tribunal in Dhaka awards death penalty to Razakar Hasan Ali |
| 2015-06-10 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] His atrocities were well-known in his locality in Kishoreganj. The nature and extent of his brutality during the 1971 Liberation War earned him the nickname "Razakar Hasan Ali Daroga". On a September noon in 1971, Syed Hasan Ali, a Razakar commander of Tarail thana in Kishoreganj, along with his 15-20 armed accomplices, destroyed Hindu-dominated Palpara of Shemulhati village in less than three hours. They captured 12 Hindus and split them into two groups. Initially, Hasan shot two villagers to death while his men tied and queued up 10 others. He and his Lions of Islam opened fire, leaving all but one dead. The surviving person fled and hid himself in a paddy field. But he was caught and killed by Hasan's men. Before leaving Palpara around 3:30pm, Hasan and his gang left a trail of destruction. They plundered many houses and set those on fire. Forty-four years after his notoriety, a special tribunal yesterday sentenced him to death for the act of genocide. The 68-year-old is on the run. The International Crimes Tribunal-1 said the convicted criminal can be executed either "by hanging or shooting" -- the first such order in the war crimes trials in Bangladesh. The court, however, said the government will decide the mode of execution. The tribunal found Hasan guilty of another act of genocide committed at Borgaon in Tarail on the night of September 27. Hasan and his accomplices cordoned off a boat on which a group of Hindus from Netrakona were going to India. They dragged the Hindu people onto their boat in Markan Bill and took them to Balongka road in Tarail. Hasan shot three men dead and his fellow Razakars killed five other men and took away ornaments and cash from the female members of the group. The three-member tribunal led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, with Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque as members, sentenced him to death for the crimes. "All the crimes mentioned in the said two charges [charges 3 and 4] relating to genocide and crimes against humanity were massive human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations committed during the War of Liberation in 1971," said the court. The fierceness of the crimes were "extremely detrimental to basic humanness" and it deserved to be evaluated as "crimes of serious gravity" intending to demean the human civilisation. "...no punishment other than death will be equal to the said horrendous crimes for which the accused has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in the above mentioned two charges," added the court. Hasan was found guilty on five of the six charges brought against him. He got death sentence on two charges and jail until death on three other charges. |
| Posted by:Fred |