The Bangladesh Supreme Court has upheld death for key Jamaat-e-Islami leader and financier Mir Quasem Ali, a pro-Pakistani militia commander in 1971, in an appeal verdict of a war crimes case.
A five-member full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, delivered the verdict before a packed courtroom on Tuesday.
Ali is the sixth war crimes convict whose appeal has been rejected. Of the earlier five, four were executed and one serves life imprisonment for crimes against humanity during the nation’s liberation war in 1971.
The verdict cited the crimes Ali committed as the Chittagong area commander of the Al-Badr, a militia formed with members of the Jamaat’s students’ wing, Islami Chhatra Sangha , to assist the Pakistan Army during the nine-month-long war.
Ali, 63, now a member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s central executive council, handed death by a special war crimes tribunal in 2014.
Ali, who owns Diganta Media that runs a TV channel and a newspaper, is also the founder of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, the country’s top private sector bank.
He was the third most important leader of the Al Badr killing squad, which killed tortured pro-independence people in 1971.
Fled the country after independence, Ali returned to Bangladesh first as an employee of the Saudi-based Rabita Al Islam welfare trust and helped Jamaat secure a strong financial foothold, amassing huge wealth.
Verdict hailedThe 1971 war veterans, victims’ families and pro-liberation activists across the country welcomed the apex court’s decision.
The ruling Awami League and other secular parties have also hailed the verdict, saying it has “fulfilled” the nation’s long overdue expectations.
However, Jamaat has called for a dawn-to-dusk countrywide hartal on Wednesday to protest the verdict.
