Bangladesh Opposition Leader Sentenced to Death for War Crimes

DHAKA, Nov. 13 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal Thursday awarded death to a local-level opposition party leader for war crimes including mass killings in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 pronounced the verdict Thursday morning on a crime against humanity case, awarding death sentence to ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Zahid Hossain Khokon, now absconding.

Khokon, who engaged himself with BNP politics after Bangladesh independence, was indicted last year with 11 charges of crimes against humanity,including looting, mass killings, arson, rape and forcefully converting people into Muslims during the war.

After the verdict, ICT prosecutor Mokhlesur Rahman told reporters that “six charges, including murder against Khokon, were proved beyond a reasonable doubt leading to a death sentence to Khokon who was allegedly a close associate of Abul Kalam Azad, another condemned war criminal from Bangladesh’s central Faridpur district.