Two suspects were sentenced to death in a Bangladeshi tribunal court. The two were convicted of killings during the 1971 conflict which started in the dismemberment of Pakistan.
Obaidul Haque and Ataur Rahman lawyers said that they would seek to inverse the decision of the International Crimes Tribunal which they say lacks international oversight. The two were convicted of killing seven people and also raping women in the northern district of Netrokona plus torturing six others until their death after abducting them.
A total of 23 witnesses had testified against them during the court hearings last year. After the chaos in East Pakistan which is now known as Bangladesh, the court has convicted total of 21 people. Most of them were senior figures in Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party.
Two of the leaders of this group have been executed together with one senior leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The BNP was the group who accused the prime minister presiding over politically motivated killings. Jamaat, however, was banned from entering the elections last 2014 and said that the executions are government's way of eliminating them from leadership contention.
The prosecutions attorney, Khlesur Rahman Badal said that he was happy with the decision. Another prosecutor Ziad al-Malum said that the decision gave a clear idea about the millions of martyrs who sacrificed to give them an independent state. They added that Haque is not only a leader of the anti-independence group in 1971 but also the head of an armed group that's behind the attacks on civilians while Rahman was also identified as part of the group.
The defense however with their lawyer Gazi Tamim said that they will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court and hope that his client will be proven innocent and be acquitted at the same time. But the government of Sheikh Hasina believed that the trials are needed to heal the wounds of conflict.
