Liberation War trial: Death for ex-MP Shakhawat, life imprisonment for seven others

A special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced former Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Shakhawat Hossain to death in a case filed against him for crimes committed in Jessore district during the Liberation War.

The tribunal also sentenced lifetime imprisonment for seven others in the same case, reports the Daily Star.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 led by Justice Anwarul Haque awarded the sentence after two of the accused, Shakhawat and Billal Hossain Biswas, were produced before the court while six others are still absconding.

Another accused Lutfar Morol died of old age complications in May this year.

The accused were facing five charges of crimes including killing and rape.

The prosecution on July 26 last year pressed charges against 12 people over the killing of two persons, rape of one and torture on two between mid-September and mid-October during the war in 1971.

The tribunal accepted charges against nine on September 8 last year and cleared the other three.

Shakhawat was a central committee member of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, and a commander of Razakar force at Chingra Bazar camp. The others were members of the Pakistani occupation army's auxiliary force, according to the prosecution.