DOCSLIB.ORG

Report on the International Crimes Tribunal Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Report on the International Crimes Tribunal Of REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMES TRIBUNAL OF BANGLADESH By Geoffrey Robertson Q.C. Page 1 of 126 Published by International Forum for Democracy and Human Rights | IFDHR IFDHR is a non-profit human rights association. Its registered address is Skenderija 40, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. http://www.ifdhr.org © IFDHR 2015 All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may be freely used and copied for educational and other non-commercial purposes, provided that any such reproduction is accompanied by an acknowledgment of Geoffrey Robertson QC as the author and the IFDHR as the source. Page 2 of 126 Page 3 of 126 TABLE OF CONTENTS NOTES ON PUBLICATION ..................................................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION: LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY .......................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 - PAKISTAN, EAST AND WEST: A SHORT HISTORY........................................................ 16 CHAPTER 2 – COUNTDOWN TO MASS MURDER ...................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 3 – THE CIVIL WAR ............................................................................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 4 – RETRIBUTION ............................................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 5 - THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMES (TRIBUNALS) ACT 1973 – 40 YEARS ON ........... 54 CHAPTER 6 – IMPARTIALITY: THE MASK SLIPS ........................................................................................ 63 CHAPTER 7 – DEATH SENTENCES: THE FATAL FLAW ......................................................................... 70 CHAPTER 8 – TRIALS IN THE ABSENCE OF THE DEFENDANTS ..................................................... 84 CHAPTER 9 – OBJECTIONS OF LAW ................................................................................................................ 91 a. A Delay of 40 Years Frustrates a Fair Trial ...................................................................................................... 91 b. That the inclusion of “individuals and groups” by a 2009 amendment can only have prospective effect, and ICTA can only apply to the 195 Pakistani war criminals for which it was originally designed. ................................................. 92 c. The Tripartite Agreement gave immunity to the 195 Pakistani POWs and this immunity extends to all who could be prosecuted under ICTA ............................................................................................................................................ 92 d. The Accused should have been prosecuted under the Collaborators Order .............................................................. 93 e. Retrospective Law ................................................................................................................................................. 94 CHAPTER 10 – GUILT BY ASSOCIATION? ..................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 11 – PROCEDURAL JUSTICE ........................................................................................................ 110 a. Treatment of Alibi ............................................................................................................................................. 110 b. Burden of Proof .................................................................................................................................................. 112 c. Use of Judicial Notice ......................................................................................................................................... 112 d. Time and Facilities to Prepare Defence ............................................................................................................... 114 e. Hearsay Evidence ............................................................................................................................................... 115 f. Capacity of the Judges .......................................................................................................................................... 116 g. The Defence ........................................................................................................................................................ 117 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................... 121 Page 4 of 126 Page 5 of 126 NOTES ON PUBLICATION This report has been commissioned and published by the International Forum for Democracy and Human Rights, a group of international lawyers some of whose members have been involved in giving advice to counsel defending those accused in the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. The detailed work of this war crimes court, which has passed a number of death sentences on opposition political leaders for crimes allegedly committed in the 1971 civil war, has received scant attention in the West although its first decision to execute a defendant was condemned by the UK Government, the U.S. Government, the EU, the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. It was therefore decided to invite a distinguished international lawyer, renowned for his independence, to assess the Tribunal’s origins and work to date (January, 2015). Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC has had a celebrated career in practicing and developing the international law of human rights. He was the first President of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone, and his textbook Crimes Against Humanity has been an inspiration for the global justice movement. It was repeatedly cited as authoritative by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in the first case decided by the Tribunal. For that reason alone, Mr Robertson’s opinion must be taken seriously by the government and the legal establishment of Bangladesh. Mr Robertson has no professional or personal connection to those that have commissioned this report, nor to any of the defendants or their counsel at the Tribunal. He has been provided with transcripts of the judgments in all the Tribunal cases, and was requested to provide his own views on Bangladesh’s efforts to bring justice to the victims of international crimes. Mr Robertson appointed a legal assistant, Mr Toby Collis, and Mr Harrison Lanigan-Coyte helped with historical research. Mrs Judy Rollinson, his personal assistant, has worked on the publication of the Report, Page 6 of 126 which sets out the background to the Tribunal and evaluates its published judgments and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court appeals thus far. Page 7 of 126 Page 8 of 126 INTRODUCTION: LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY The mass killings of many hundreds of thousands of Bengalis in East Pakistan in 1971, accompanied by widespread torture with rapes designed to affect the ethnic balance and the subsequent exodus of millions of refugees, has a special place in the history of the world’s unrequited horrors. What stands out is the full-on barbarity of “Operation Searchlight”, in which a monstrous regiment, with the latest military hardware, emerged behemoth-like from its barracks to kill the poor and burn down their houses and then to exterminate the intelligentsia. That was the beginning of the war. At the end, a few days before Pakistan’s foreseeable surrender, came the most spiteful killings – of the professionals, teachers and community leaders who might have made a contribution to the nascent state of Bangladesh. There was genocide too, aimed at extinguishing or extirpating the large minority (ten million) Hindu population. But these 1971 atrocities are remembered for not being remembered: the main perpetrators (195 Pakistani army officers) were transformed from war criminals to hostages in a game of cold-war diplomacy, and then hailed as home-coming heroes in Pakistan where they have never faced trial. Some of their accomplices were apprehended in the new state of Bangladesh, and in 1973 its International Crimes (Tribunal) Act established a procedure and a court for trying those accused of the crimes against humanity committed in the course of the 1971 attack on East Pakistan1. It had been drafted with the assistance of the International Commission of Jurists, to ensure that the trials were fair by being truly international, with some foreign judges and defence counsel and proper rules of evidence. The Prime Minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, resisted strong international pressure to dismantle it: “How can you expect me to abandon it? Three million people were cold-bloodedly murdered. Two hundred thousand girls have been raped by the Pakistan army. Ten 1 M.Silva,‘ Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal’ (2013)3(1) International Journal of Rights and Security, p75 Page 9 of 126 million people had to migrate to India and another 15 million moved from place to place out of fear. The world should know what has happened”. 2 Forty years later, the world still did not know what had happened. The International Crimes (Tribunal) Act went into the cold-storage of the Cold War. Sheikh Mujib was assassinated in 1975 and Bangladesh fell to a succession of military governments interspersed by periods of democracy. There seemed little government interest in reviving the issue, although in 1994 a “Peoples Court” took
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bangladesh's Failed Election
    April 2014, Volume 25, Number 2 $13.00 Democratic Parliamentary Monarchies Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz, and Juli F. Minoves Ethnic Power-Sharing and Democracy Donald L. Horowitz Nelson Mandela’s Legacy Princeton N. Lyman The Freedom House Survey for 2013 Arch Puddington A New Twilight in Zimbabwe? Adrienne LeBas Charles Mangongera Shifting Tides in South Asia Sumit Ganguly Maya Tudor Ali Riaz Mahendra Lawoti Jason Stone S.D. Muni Fathima Musthaq Shifting Tides in South Asia BANGLADESH’S FAILED ELECTION Ali Riaz Ali Riaz is professor of politics and government at Illinois State Univer- sity. In 2013, he was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson In- ternational Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. His books include Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (2010). Is democracy in Bangladesh undergoing a reversal? This question must be asked in the wake of the country’s troubled tenth parliamentary elec- tion, which took place on 5 January 2014. Boycotted by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the rest of the opposition, the voting was marred by the lowest turnout and worst electoral violence in Bangla- desh’s 43-year history.1 The result is a Parliament in which the incum- bent Awami League (AL) and its allies control nearly all 300 elected seats.2 Owing to the boycott, more than half the races—or 154, to be exact—featured but a single candidate. Before the polls opened, BNP leader Khaleda Zia (who served as prime minister in 1991–96 and 2001–2006) had been placed under vir- tual house arrest while Jatiya Party (JP) head H.M.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations
    Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations Updated October 17, 2017 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R44094 Bangladesh and Bangladesh-U.S. Relations Summary Bangladesh (the former East Pakistan) is a Muslim-majority nation in South Asia, bordering India, Burma, and the Bay of Bengal. It is the world’s eighth most populous country with nearly 160 million people living in a land area about the size of Iowa. It is an economically poor nation, and it suffers from high levels of corruption. In recent years, its democratic system has faced an array of challenges, including political violence, weak governance, poverty, demographic and environmental strains, and Islamist militancy. The United States has a long-standing and supportive relationship with Bangladesh, and it views Bangladesh as a moderate voice in the Islamic world. In relations with Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, the U.S. government, along with Members of Congress, has focused on a range of issues, especially those relating to economic development, humanitarian concerns, labor rights, human rights, good governance, and counterterrorism. The Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) dominate Bangladeshi politics. When in opposition, both parties have at times sought to regain control of the government through demonstrations, labor strikes, and transport blockades, as well as at the ballot box. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in office since 2009, and her AL party was reelected in January 2014 with an overwhelming majority in parliament—in part because the BNP, led by Khaleda Zia, boycotted the vote. The BNP has called for new elections, and in recent years, it has organized a series of blockades and strikes.
    [Show full text]
  • Amnesty International Public Statement
    AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI index: ASA 13/003/2013 22 February 2013 Bangladesh: Resist pressure to push for hasty death sentences at war crimes Tribunal Amnesty International is concerned that the government of Bangladesh may use new amendments to the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 (ICT Act) to push for hasty death sentences to be imposed on individuals convicted by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The amendments, passed by Parliament on 17 February, permit the prosecution to appeal against any decision of the ICT to impose a lesser sentence. The ICT is a national court established in 2010 to try people suspected of crimes under international law, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. The ICT Act governs the conduct of trials before the ICT. After opening its first trial in November 2011, the ICT delivered its first verdict – in absentia - on 21 January 2013. Abul Kalam Azad, associated with the opposition religious party Jamaat- e-Islami, was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. On 5 February, the ICT delivered its second judgment and sentenced Abdul Quader Molla, a senior member of the same opposition party, to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. Following that second verdict, members of the ruling Awami League government claimed that the sentence was not enough and that a death sentence should have been handed down. At the same time, a large-scale protest movement has erupted in Dhaka, demanding the death sentence for Abdul Quader Molla and any others convicted of crimes under international law by the ICT.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents AFRICA CENTRAL AFRICA
    War Crimes Prosecution Watch Editor-in-Chief Volume 11 - Kevin J. Vogel FREDERICK K. COX Issue 17 INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTER Technical Editor-in-Chief October 31, Jeradon Z. Mura Founder/Advisor 2016 Michael P. Scharf Managing Editors Dustin Narcisse Victoria Sarant War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email [email protected] and type "subscribe" in the subject line. Opinions expressed in the articles herein represent the views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the War Crimes Prosecution Watch staff, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law or Public International Law & Policy Group. Contents AFRICA CENTRAL AFRICA Central African Republic VOA News: At Least 23 Killed in Fighting in Central African Republic CCTV-Africa: U.S welcomes ICC verdict on Jean-Pierre Bemba DW: Deaths reported in violent Central African Republic protests Sudan & South Sudan NPR: As South Sudan Fights, Refugees Flow Into Uganda AllAfrica Global Media: Sudan: Govt Sues, Threatens Amnesty International UN News Centre: South Sudan: UN Human Rights Chief Warns of 'Alarming Rise' in Ethnic Hate Speech Deutsche Welle: Armed Groups Free 145 Child Soldiers in South Sudan Democratic Republic of the Congo Reuters: Inter-ethnic violence kills over a dozen in southeastern Congo Voice of America: World Court Convicts Congolese Warlord of Witness Tampering Daily Nation: DR Congo arrests top Rwandan rebel, says army BBC News: DR Congo arrests Rwanda FDLR rebel commander Reuters: U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • Researched and Compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Monday 26 May 2014
    Bangladesh - Researched and compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Monday 26 May 2014 Information on the activities of Taliban & Muslim extremists including interaction with society In May 2014 a publication released by Jane’s Intelligence Review notes that: “Bangladesh faces growing security threats from a range of radical Islamist interests, including entrenched Deobandi militants, newly emergent jihadist groups, and even transnational operations such as Al-Qaeda” (Jane’s Intelligence Review (1 May 2014) Radical thinking - Transnational jihadists eye Bangladesh). This report also notes: “A message from Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in January 2014, the first specifically directed at Bangladesh, will resonate with a number of radical groups aiming to spread jihad within the country. Despite not having established a cell within Bangladesh to date, Al-Qaeda's apparently rising interest in the country will galvanise local groups that pose a more immediate security threat. Bangladesh, the fourth largest Muslim majority country in the world, has experienced resurgent religious confrontations since 2013, with moderate and radical Islamist forces taking to the streets for intermittently violent confrontations that have undermined the country's secular credentials…Within this troubled atmosphere, latent Islamist militancy also exists in the form of well-entrenched Deobandi militant groups such as Jamaat ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami-Bangladesh (HUJI-B), both of which can trace their lineage to JeI and are now attempting to regain some of their past influence. Other newly founded militant Islamist groups, such as the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), are also finding the resources and opportunities to mark their presence on the Jihadist landscape of Bangladesh.
    [Show full text]
  • ICT-BD Case No.04 of 2014, Order No.06
    International Crimes Tribunal-1 Old High Court Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh. ICT-BD Case No.04 OF 2014 Chief Prosecutor-Versus-Md. Obaidul Haque alias Taher and another Present: Mr. Justice M. Enayetur Rahim, Chairman Mr. Justice Jahangir Hossain, Member Mr. Justice Anwarul Haque, Member Order No.06 Order dated 02.03.2015 Mr. Moklesur Rahman, Advocate .......for the prosecution Mr. Shah Md. Shahab Uddin, Advocate .......for accused Md. Obaidul Haque alias Taher Mr. Mizanul Islam, Advocate with Mr. Gazi M. H. Tamim, Advocate .......for accused Ataur Rahman alias Noni Decision on charge framing matter Accused 1) Md. Obaidul Haque alias Taher and 2) Ataur Rahman alias Noni have been produced before this Tribunal today by the prison authority. Today is fixed for passing decision on charge framing matter and as such the record is taken up for order. Before giving decision on charge framing matter, we would prefer to provide a brief milieu and context of the case, its history, and the arguments presented by both prosecution and defence before this Tribunal. 1. Formation of the Tribunal This International Crimes Tribunal-1 [hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal] was established under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act enacted in 1973 [hereinafter referred to as the Act] by 2 Bangladesh Parliament to provide for the detention, prosecution and punishment of persons responsible for genocide, crimes against Humanity, war crimes, and crimes committed in the territory of Bangladesh, in violation of customary international law, particularly between the period of 25 March and 16 December,1971. However, no Tribunal was set up and as such no one could be brought to justice under the Act until the government established the Tribunal on 25 March, 2010.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh: Extremism & Counter-Extremism
    Bangladesh: Extremism & Counter-Extremism On July 1, 2016, at least five Islamist militants stormed into Holey Artisan Bakery, an upscale restaurant in the Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, and detonated explosives before separating the Muslim and local Bangladeshi hostages from the non-Muslims and foreigners. After a 12-hour siege, Bangladeshi security forces stormed the restaurant in the early hours of July 2 and freed 13 hostages. The officials found 20 hostages hacked and stabbed to death, including Italian, Japanese, Indian, and U.S. citizens. Four militants and two police officers were killed over the course of the incident, and one militant was arrested. (Sources: Reuters, Dhaka Tribune, CNN, BBC News, BBC News) The July 1 restaurant attack reportedly was the 24th ISIS attack in Bangladesh since September 2015, and the most deadly in a spate of terror attacks in Bangladesh in 2016. Though ISIS claimed responsibility, some U.S. officials said that the assault bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. In October 2016, ISIS released an article reiterating its claim of responsibility and providing its own narrative of the attacks. Bangladeshi authorities reportedly have evidence of communications between the architect of the attack and Abu Terek Mohammad Tajuddin Kausar, an ISIS militant born in Bangladesh but living in Australia. Kausar is said to have approved the attack and ordered the assailants to specifically target non-Muslim foreigners and expatriates. (Sources: Guardian, Dhaka Tribune, NPR, Times of India, CNN, Hindu BusinessLine, Dhaka Tribune, Reuters, Reuters, New York Times) Bangladeshi officials nonetheless claim that ISIS does not maintain a presence in the country.
    [Show full text]
  • Network of Concerned Historians NCH Annual Report 2011 Http
    Network of Concerned Historians NCH Annual Report 2011 http://www.concernedhistorians.org INTRODUCTION The seventeenth Annual Report of the Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) contains news about the domain where history and human rights intersect, especially about the censorship of history and the persecution of historians, archivists, and archaeologists around the globe, as reported by various human rights organizations and other sources. It covers events and developments of 2010 and 2011. The fact that NCH presents this news does not imply that it shares the views and beliefs of the historians and others mentioned in it. The complete set of Annual Reports (1995–2011) was compiled by Antoon De Baets. Please send any comments to: <[email protected]>. Please cite as: Network of Concerned Historians, Annual Report 2011 (http://www.concernedhistorians.org). Network of Concerned Historians, Annual Report 2011 (June 2011) 2 ____________________________________________________________ AFGHANISTAN Last Annual Report entry: 2010. In early 2010, the National Stability and Reconciliation bill was officially promulgated, granting immunity from criminal prosecution to people who committed serious human rights violations and war crimes over the past thirty years. In March 2007, a coalition of powerful warlords in parliament pushed through the amnesty law to prevent prosecution of individuals responsible for large-scale human rights abuses in the preceding decades. It was not publicized and promulgated until early 2010. It was revived in 2010 to facilitate amnesties for reconciliation and reintegration of the Taliban and the islamist political party Hezb-i Islami Gulbuddin. In the absence of a practical justice system to address the lack of accountability by the warring parties, the government was urged to ask the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all parties to the conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • Torture in Bangladesh 1971-2004
    TORTURE IN BANGLADESH 1971-2004 MAKING INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS A REALITY AND PROVIDING JUSTICE AND REPARATIONS TO VICTIMS AUGUST 2004 REALISED WITH FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM THE EUROPEAN INITIATIVE FOR DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS The Redress Trust 87 Vauxhall Walk, 3rd Floor London, SE11 5HJ Tel: +44 (0)207 793 1777 Fax: +44(0)207 793 1719 Website: www.redress.org 1 TORTURE IN BANGLADESH 1971- 2004 INDEX I. INTRODUCTION ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 4 II. CONTEXT OF TORTURE IN BANGLADESH ................................ ................................ .. 5 A. POLITICAL HISTORY..............................................................................................................................5 B. TORTURE AND OTHER SERIOUS ABUSES COMMITTED IN THE COURSE OF THE 1971 WAR.....7 i. Violations attributed to Pakistani forces and “collaborators”..................................................................................................7 ii. Violations attributed to the Mukthi Bahini and Bengali civilians.............................................................................................8 C. THE PRACTICE OF TORTURE IN BANGLADESH FROM 1971-2004...................................................9 III. BANGLADESH’S OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW AND IMPLEMENTATION IN DOMESTIC LAW ................................ ................................ .......... 13 A. INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS .........................................................................................................13
    [Show full text]
  • Bangladesh - Researched and Compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Friday 24 & Tuesday 28 October 2014
    Bangladesh - Researched and compiled by the Refugee Documentation Centre of Ireland on Friday 24 & Tuesday 28 October 2014 Information on Jamaat-e-Islami including: general information; treatment by Awami League; party leaders between 2010 & 2014 The Jamaat-e-Islami party in an undated document states: “Jamaat e Islami is not a conventional religious, political, social or cultural party only. Jamaat performs as a spiritual party as spiritual life is important in Islam. Jamaat performs in political arena because Islamic law can’t be implemented without political force. Jamaat concentrates upon social service and social reform as strong emphasis has been given on social service and social reform in Islam. In this sense, Jamaat- e- Islami is a complete Islamic movement” (Jamaat-e-Islami (Undated) About Us). This document also notes: “To be associated with Jamaat: Firstly fill up the form of associate member Regularly attend in weekly meeting for attaining Islamic knowledge and character Attentively read tafsir (explanation) of Quran and Hadith, Islamic literature and news papers. Practice according to what knowledge you have gained and take firm decision not to do anything against your conscience. Be the member of Jamaat to perform the duty of deen efficiently” (ibid). A repot issued in 2014 by the Hindu American Foundation notes: “Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Bangladesh is an offshoot of the Jamaat organization that was founded in undivided India in 1941 by Maulana Abul Ala Mauddudi. Jamaat drew its inspiration from the Deobandi school of Islam, known for promoting religious extremism in several countries in the region, and modeled itself after the Muslim Brotherhood.1 Separate branches were subsequently established in both Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), also known as Jamaat-e-Islami, following India’s partition.
    [Show full text]
  • Non-Retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes Against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh
    Journal of Politics and Law; Vol. 13, No. 3; 2020 ISSN 1913-9047 E-ISSN 1913-9055 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Non-retroactivity in Prosecuting Crimes against Humanity and International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh Maruf Billah1 1 Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan Correspondence: Maruf Billah, Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Furo- Cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Received: July 18, 2020 Accepted: August 10, 2020 Online Published: August 30, 2020 doi:10.5539/jpl.v13n3p180 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v13n3p180 Abstract The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) was set up by Bangladesh through the adaptation of the International Crimes Tribunal Act 1973, as an internal mechanism trying to prosecute and punish Bangladeshi perpetrators who committed international crimes in Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. After a long disappearance from the public eye, the Tribunal was reemerged in 2010. The recent cases decided by the Tribunal have revealed that the international crimes; namely, crimes against humanity, were allegedly committed in 1971, while the relevant Statute was enacted in 1973, and was implemented in 2010. Recently, the ICTB is prosecuting crimes against humanity retroactively, which might have violated the prohibition of penalizing certain conducts committed by the perpetrators before the enforcement of such conduct as a law banning such demeanor as an offense. Therefore, this study firstly analyzes the rule against retroactivity in international criminal law. Secondly, it investigates the justification of the retroactive criminalization of crimes against humanity at the first International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, and its crystallization into the regional and international legal instruments.
    [Show full text]
  • Tormenting 71 File-04
    The dead bodies of the students of Sergent Zahurul Huq Hall, Dhaka University, Killed during the dark night on March 25, 1971 A visual document of Pakistan army's atrocities in the district of Kushtia An ice berg of brutal women repression by the Pakistani occupied forces which become a regular phenomenon during nine months of Bangladesh liberation war Two repressed women at the Rehabilitation Centre in Dhaka during 1972 The bodies of the intellectuals at Rayer Bazar slaughtering spot. Apprehending ultimate defeat, the Pakistani occupied forces prepared list of the top most intellectuals of the country with the help of their local collaborator Jamaat-e-Islami's killing squad Al Badar and executed the pre-planned elimination A example of crime against humanity: Pakistani soldiers used to humilate people in this manner to identify whether he is a Hindu or Muslim The bodies of innocent Bengalees on the street of Jessore district Dhaka city wore a vies of devastation : aftermath of the March 25 crack down in 1971 Indian Army preparing lists of the sophisticated arms laid down by Pakistani occupied forces on December 16, 1971 The agony of a women in a west Bengal refugee camp in India whose husband and others family members were killed by Pakistani army The human skeletons recovered from the slaughtered sites. More than 5 thousands such sites are calculated in different part of Bangladesh The thousands of localities were destroyed by Pakistani shells leaving hundreds dead or jnjured. A bid for treatment of a burnt boy The wailing parents at a refugee camp in Indian state of West Bengal, who lost their children Appendix List of the war criminals of Pakistani armed forces Bangladesh government prepared a list of five hundred Pakistani war criminals in 1972.
    [Show full text]