Bangladesh has strongly refuted the UN human rights body’s statement on war crimes trials, saying it was “highly disturbing.”
The UN’s human rights office on Thursday called on Bangladesh to stop implementing death sentences awarded by the war crimes tribunal “given the doubts on its fairness.” The statement came after two convicted war criminals — Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed — were recently hanged.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has also claimed that the trials were “not fair” and called for abolishing the death penalty.
The Foreign Ministry told the OHCHR that it was “highly disturbed” by the conclusion the rights body had made based on its “misperception or misconception” about the realities. The letter also detailed the process of the trial, appeal and further review for the benefit of the UN body.
The letter explained that the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh considered only the crimes committed by individuals in 1971, not related with the present political status of the convicts.
“Chowdhury or Mojaheed’s cases have nothing to do with their political identity or affiliation, and the point that they belong to some opposition political parties is only a coincidence as far as the trials are concerned,” it read. Bangladesh also reiterated that as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights it was obliged to maintain international standards in its judicial process.
