Clashes in B'desh ahead of verdict on war crimes accused

Bangladesh today stepped up security as clashes erupted on the eve of a key verdict in the trial of a radical Islamist leader accused of 'crimes against humanity' during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
91-year-old Ghulam Azam was the former chief of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami's East Pakistan wing and provincial minister in 1971.
"Tomorrow (Monday) is fixed for the verdict," Chairman of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir said at the courtroom nearly three months after it wrapped up hearing on the charges against Azam.
The tribunal also ordered jail authorities to take necessary steps to ensure Azam's appearance in court from at the time of the delivery of the judgment rejecting his counsel's plea not to deliver the verdict in his presence.

The tribunal's announcement of trial date immediately prompted the Jamaat to call a nationwide general strike fearing their leader could be convicted while suspected activists of the party assaulted three policemen and torched vehicles in the capital and also set off crude bombs in parts of Dhaka.
If found guilty Azam could be sentenced to death.

Police said a group of Jamaat activists took out processions at Bijoynagar area and also smashed vehicles.
Azam, the former Jamaat chief who was also a minister under the Pakistani junta in 1971, was held in custody in a hospital since his arrest last year.

Last year, a tribunal indicted him on the basis of 61 specific incidents under five categories while the prosecution called him the "top collaborator" of the then ruling junta.
Azam rejected the war crime charges calling them "politically motivated".
Azam's party opposed Bangladesh's independence with many of its activists siding with Pakistani forces while the prosecution brought 52 allegations of war crimes against Azam pressing the charges against him last month.
Azam was stripped off his nationality as he fled the country at the fag end of the Liberation War but got it back after a legal battle on his return home in 1978 when he also resumed his position as the 'Ameer' or head of the Jamaat in independent Bangladesh.

Bangladesh maintains that 3 million people were butchered by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the Liberation War.
Most of Jamaat's top leaders at the time were accused of siding with Pakistani troops, constituting militias and auxiliary forces like Razakars and Al Badr that carried out mass atrocities.
In the past several months, Jamaat has spearheaded violent street campaigns to thwart the trial of their leaders particularly in their strongholds as deadly violence over the war crimes trial has left over 100 people dead.
Since the constitution of the first war crimes tribunal three years ago, 12 people have been indicted so far, nine of them being Jamaat leaders and two from main opposition and Jamaat ally BNP.

The tribunal has already awarded death penalty to three Islamist leaders and life imprisonment to another.