Prosecutors sought the death sentence on Thursday for a top Bangladesh opposition figure who is expected to be the first person convicted by the country's controversial war crime court.
Abdul Quader Molla, 64, the third highest ranked official of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of killing more than 400 people during Bangladesh's deadly 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
Molla was present at a special court in the Bangladeshi capital where his lawyers said the prosecution had failed to prove any of the six charges against him.
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali in his closing arguments said Molla deserved maximum punishment as the charges against him such as genocide and murder including that of a top journalist and a poet were ‘proved beyond reasonable doubt’.
‘We prayed for the conviction of Molla and he deserves to be awarded capital punishment, which is death sentence,’ he told AFP, adding the court would now deliver the judgement ‘at any moment on any day soon’.
If convicted Molla would be the first of about a dozen of opposition leaders including two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the rest from Jamaat to be found guilty.
crime laws and questioned the fairness of the proceedings.
Named the International Crimes Tribunal, the court is a domestic court set-up by the country's secular government in 2010. It is not endorsed by the United Nations. Both BNP and Jamaat called the cases ‘politically motivated’. International rights groups also highlighted shortcomings of the war
The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals collaborating with Pakistani forces.
Abdul Quader Molla, 64, the third highest ranked official of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was accused of killing more than 400 people during Bangladesh's deadly 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
Molla was present at a special court in the Bangladeshi capital where his lawyers said the prosecution had failed to prove any of the six charges against him.
Prosecutor Mohammad Ali in his closing arguments said Molla deserved maximum punishment as the charges against him such as genocide and murder including that of a top journalist and a poet were ‘proved beyond reasonable doubt’.
‘We prayed for the conviction of Molla and he deserves to be awarded capital punishment, which is death sentence,’ he told AFP, adding the court would now deliver the judgement ‘at any moment on any day soon’.
If convicted Molla would be the first of about a dozen of opposition leaders including two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the rest from Jamaat to be found guilty.
crime laws and questioned the fairness of the proceedings.
Named the International Crimes Tribunal, the court is a domestic court set-up by the country's secular government in 2010. It is not endorsed by the United Nations. Both BNP and Jamaat called the cases ‘politically motivated’. International rights groups also highlighted shortcomings of the war
The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals collaborating with Pakistani forces.