Bangladesh Jamaat Leader Handed the Death Penalty

Assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, has been handed the death penalty by a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal for war crimes against humanity.

Kamaruzzaman, who has claimed his trial is politically motivated, was convicted on five counts of torture, rape, kidnapping and genocide of at least 120 unarmed Bangladeshi farmers in Sohagpur village.

He was accused of being the mastermind behind the creation of the al-Badr, a killer squad of the Pakistani army that committed mass murder during the 1971 war for independence.

Chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq said, “He was just a lad during the war. It’s a ridiculous suggestion that a 19-year-old could control the Pakistani army.”

According to an interview held by Al Jazeera with a top analyst, David Bergman, he said, “The Jamaat-e-Islami will not be happy with this verdict, but it is unclear at this point whether there will be violence.”

He also added, “There has been constant criticism from the defence lawyers that they are dealing with a politicized court process and that they are being prosecuted because they are part of an alliance that is against the government.”

He told the correspondent that despite the loud cheers outside the court after the verdict was announced, the defence, however, is extremely critical of the judgment and cannot believe so much responsibility is being placed on a man who was just 19 at the time the crime was committed.

The war tribunal, which was established in 2010 by the government to put under trial Bangladesh natives charged with collaborating with Pakistani forces in an attempt to prevent the independence of East Pakistan, have convicted three other Islamists that play key roles in the affairs of the Jamaat party.

Only in February, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, a Jamaat leader, was handed the penalty for his war crimes. There are indications that Kamaruzzaman’s conviction will increase the tension between police and Islamist protesters as there have been deadly clashes between the two parties in Dhaka.

According to official statistics, about three million people died in the nine-month Bangladesh secession war, while independent researchers said that the number of deaths were about half a million

US Citizen Sentenced to Jail by North Korea

Pae Jun-Ho, a US Citizen known in the country as Kenneth Bae, has been handed down a sentence of 15 years with hard labour by North Korea for allegedly carrying out “hostile acts” against the government, according to the official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday.

Only last week, the North Korean media said that Mr Pae had confessed to committing crimes against North Korea, aimed to overthrow the government. But, Pyongyang did not specify the basis of the crimes allegedly commited by Bae, who is believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent.

“The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for his crime,” KCNA said on Thursday.

He was arrested in November last year as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea’s border with China.

Earlier this week, the United States had urged North Korea to free the detainee on “humanitarian grounds.”

On Monday, deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “The welfare of US citizens is a critical and top priority for this department. We call on the DPRK to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds.”

The sentence comes at a time when there is high tension between North Korea and the United States after the UN expanded sanctions against the communist state in March, in the wake of its nuclear test in February and long-range rocket launch in December.

Do-Hee-Yoon, a Seoul-based activist, told AFP new agency that he suspects Bae was arrested because he took photographs of suffering children in the country in order to appeal for aid outside.

It has been indicated by observers that Pyongyang could use the convicted American as a “political bargaining” chip , as US officials have stood their grounds on the fact that Bae entered the country legally.

This is not the first time North Korea would arrest a US citizen, as they have arrested several others in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytism.

Their releases were strongly initiated by the intervention from high-profile American figures.

In 2009, former president Bill Clinton went on a mercy mission to North Korea, and won the release of US television journalists Laura Long and Euna Lee, who were jailed after wandering across the North-Korea border with China.

Then, in 2010, American national Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the North from China, was freed after former US president Jimmy Carter negotiated his release.

The release of Eddie Yong-Su, a California based business man, who had been detained for apparent missionary activities, was secured by a US Delegation led by Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights and humanitarian issues in 2011.