JI leader Motiur Rahman hanged in Bangladesh
Nizami refused to seek mercy from the country's president
DHAKA (Dunya News/AFP) - Bangladesh on Tuesday executed leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Motiur Rahman Nizami over baseless charges of war crimes, officials said, a move set to exacerbate tensions in the country.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of JI, was hanged at a prison in the capital Dhaka, just days after the nation’s highest court dismissed his final appeal to overturn the death sentence.
Law and Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP the 73-year-old leader was hanged just before midnight (1800 GMT) after he refused to seek mercy from the country’s president.
"He was executed between 11:50 pm and 12:00 am midnight," Huq said.
The execution has sparked fears it could trigger a fresh wave of violence in the country, which is reeling after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities.
In 2013 the convictions of JI officials for alleged war crimes triggered the country’s deadliest violence in decades. Around 500 people were killed, mainly in clashes between supporters and police while thousands were arrested.
Nizami is the fifth and highest-ranked opposition leader, and the fourth from JI, to have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes despite global criticism of their trials.
"We ve been waiting for this day," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters, adding that people "will remember this day forever".
Hours before the hanging, family members of Nizami met him for the last time at the Dhaka Central Jail, as hundreds of police and elite security forces cordoned off the British colonial-era prison.
Security has been stepped up in the capital and in Nizami’s home district of Pabna in the country’s west, with magistrates being deployed to hand down instant prison terms to any law-breakers.
"If anyone tries to commit sabotage, our security forces are ready to identify them and take proper measures," Khan told reporters.
Deprived of justice
Jamaat called a nationwide strike for Thursday in protest against the execution, saying the charges against Nizami, a former government minister, were false and aimed at eliminating the leadership of the party.
"Nizami has been deprived of justice. He’s a victim of political vengeance," the party’s acting leader Maqbul Ahmad said in a statement posted on Jamaat’s website.
He was convicted in October 2014 by the International Crimes Tribunal, which was established in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government and has sentenced more than a dozen opposition leaders for alleged war crimes.
Rights groups say the trials fell short of global standards and lack international oversight, while the government says they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict.
Amnesty International had called for an immediate halt to Nizami’s execution, citing concerns over the fairness of the trials.
