DHAKA: A wealthy tycoon who was a chief financier for Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party could be executed in days after losing his final appeal Tuesday against a death sentence from a controversial war crimes tribunal.
The Supreme Court rejected Mir Quasem Ali’s last attempt to overturn the death penalty handed down two years ago by the domestic tribunal for murders committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence conflict.
“Now he has a chance to seek presidential clemency. Or else the verdict could be executed anytime whenever the state wants,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters.
Five opposition leaders including four leading Islamists have already been executed for war crimes since 2013. They were all hanged just days after their appeals were rejected by the Supreme Court.
Their families said they had refused to seek a presidential pardon as they did not want to legitimize the whole trials process.
Ali, who became a shipping and real estate tycoon, was convicted in November 2014 of a series of crimes during Bangladesh’s war of separation from Pakistan, including the abduction and murder of a young independence fighter.
Tuesday’s decision is considered a major blow for the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which the 63-year-old Ali had helped revive by setting up charities, businesses and trusts linked to it after it was allowed to operate in the late 1970s.
His son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, who was part of his legal defense team, was allegedly abducted by security forces earlier in August, which critics say was an attempt to sow fear and prevent protests against the imminent execution.
Security was tight in Dhaka Tuesday, even though the party has in recent months eschewed violent protests in reaction to war crimes verdicts and there was no immediate sign of unrest.
The war crimes tribunal set up by the government has divided the country, with supporters of Jamaat and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) branding them a sham aimed at eliminating their leaders.
The executions and convictions of Jamaat officials plunged Bangladesh into one of its worst crises in 2013 when tens of thousands of Islamist activists clashed with police in protests that left some 500 people dead.
The Islamist party, which is banned from contesting elections, called a nationwide strike for Wednesday, calling the charges against Ali “false” and “baseless” and accusing the government of exacting “political vengeance.”
Before he was arrested in 2012 on 14 war crimes charges, Ali headed the Diganta Media Corporation, which owns a pro-Jamaat daily and a television station that was shut down in 2013 for stoking religious tensions.
Defense lawyers have said the charges against him were baseless.
“Mir Quasem Ali wasn’t directly involved in war crimes. False witnesses were provided to frame charges against him. The future generation and law experts will scrutinize the verdict whether it was justified,” Khandker Mahbub Hossain told AFP.
The court ruling comes a day after a visit to Dhaka by US Secretary of State John Kerry who said the best way to combat extremism was “to live up to the core values of democracy.”
Bangladesh has been hit by a series of deadly assaults by Islamist extremists in recent months, including an horrific attack on a Dhaka cafe in July in which 22 people, mostly foreigners, were killed.
Rights groups have criticized the war crimes trials, saying they fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.
A group of United Nations human rights experts last week urged Bangladesh to annul Ali’s death sentence and to retry him in compliance with international standards.
“International law, accepted as binding by Bangladesh, provides that capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be considered an arbitrary execution,” they cautioned.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has defended the trials, saying they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict, which it says left three million people dead.
Bangladesh’s independence war broke out, with Jamaat opposing the struggle and siding with the military regime in Islamabad.
Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people died in the 1971 war.
Bangladesh upholds Jamaat-e-Islami politician's death penalty
Bangladesh upholds Jamaat-e-Islami politician's death penalty
Family of Palestine Action hunger-strike detainee warn she could die
- Teuta Hoxha, among 8 people held on remand for over a year, has not eaten in 43 days
- Campaigners slam treatment of pro-Palestine prisoners on hunger strike
LONDON: A Palestine Action prisoner in the UK could die if the government does not step in over her hunger strike, her family have warned, amid claims that authorities have been “deliberately negligent” in the treatment of other detained hunger strikers.
Teuta Hoxha, 29, is on day 43 of her strike, having been held on remand in prison for 13 months over charges relating to a break-in at an Israel-linked arms manufacturing facility in August 2024.
She is one of eight people on hunger strike who were detained for their part in the incident at the Elbit Systems UK site.
Her sister Rahma said she can no longer stand to pray, and suffers from headaches and mobility issues.
“I know that she’s already instructed the doctors on what to do if she collapses and she’s instructed them on what to do if she passes away,” Rahma, 17, told Sky News.
“She’s only 29 — she’s not even 30 yet and nobody should be thinking about that,” Rahma added. “She’s been on remand for over a year, her trial’s not until April next year and bail keeps getting denied.”
The eight hunger strikers charged over the Elbit Systems break-in, who deny all charges against them, are demanding an end to the operation of weapons factories in the UK that supply Israel.
They are also calling for Palestine Action, which is banned in the UK, to be de-proscribed, and for their immediate bail.
They are not the only members of Palestine Action in prison carrying out hunger strikes. Amu Gib, imprisoned over a break-in at a Royal Air Force base earlier this year, was taken to hospital last week, having not eaten in 50 days.
Gib was initially denied access to a wheelchair after losing mobility, and campaigners said it was “completely unacceptable” that this had led to a missed doctor’s appointment, adding that Gib was also denied access to the vitamin thiamine.
Campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said: “At this trajectory, the hunger strikers will die unless there is urgent intervention by the government.
“It is completely unacceptable and deliberately negligent to pretend the hunger strike is not happening, or to dismiss the prisoners’ demands.
“They are in the custody of the state, and any harm that comes to them is a deliberate outcome of the government’s negligence and the politicisation of their detention.”
A relative of Gib told The Independent: “We wouldn’t know if Amu is in a coma or had a heart attack. I’m the next of kin and it’s on Amu’s medical record that I am to be contacted in the event of their hospitalisation.
“But it’s been complete agonising silence for 57 hours. I’m furious and outraged that the prison was withholding thiamine from the hunger strikers, without which they are at high risk of brain damage.”
The treatment of the hunger strikers has drawn high-profile criticism, with Dr. James Smith, an emergency physician and lecturer at University College London, telling The Independent that they “are dying” and would require specialist medical help.
Around 900 medical professionals in the UK have written to government ministers David Lammy and Wes Streeting urging them to facilitate medical treatment for the strikers.
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the governing Labour Party, posted on Instagram that he had visited Gib in prison.
Seven hunger strikers have so far been hospitalized since Nov. 2, when the first prisoners began to refuse food.
Jon Cink and Umar Khalid both ended their strikes for medical reasons, having been hospitalized, while Kamran Ahmed told the Sunday Times last week that dying for his cause would be “worthwhile.”
He added: “Every day I’m scared that potentially I might die. I’ve been getting chest pains regularly … There have been times where I felt like I’m getting tasered — my body’s vibrating or shaking. I’ll basically lose control of my feelings.
“I’ve been scared since the seventh day when my blood sugars dropped. The nurse said: ‘I’m scared you’re not going to wake up (when you go to sleep). Please eat something.’
“But I’m looking at the bigger picture of perhaps we can relieve oppression abroad and relieve the situations for my co-defendants … Yes, I’m scared of passing away. Yes, this may have lifelong implications. But I look at the risk versus reward. I see it as worthwhile.”
Under UK law, time limits are set out for those in custody awaiting trial to prevent excessive periods in pre-trial detention.
But UK Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said in relation to the Palestine Action detainees: “These prisoners are charged with serious offences including aggravated burglary and criminal damage.
“Remand decisions are for independent judges, and lawyers can make representations to the court on behalf of their clients.
“Ministers will not meet with them — we have a justice system that is based on the separation of powers, and the independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our system.
“It would be entirely unconstitutional and inappropriate for ministers to intervene in ongoing legal cases.”
Rahma says her sister calls her from prison every day, despite her predicament, to help with her studies.
“Our mother passed away when I was really young. Teuta took care of me and my siblings and made sure to read us bedtime stories.
“She’s always there for me and even from prison, she’s helping me do my homework and revise for exams.”
Rahma added: “My sister is a caring and loving person It feels like the state has taken a piece of me.”
She continued: “The only form of resistance she has is her body and that’s what she is using against the state.”
