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Mueen-Ashraf

War crimes verdict today

Staff Correspondent
Today, a war crimes tribunal would deliver its verdict in the case against Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan for their alleged involvement in the killing of the brightest sons of the soil towards the end of the Liberation War.
The duo have been charged with the abduction and killing of nine Dhaka University teachers, six eminent journalists and three physicians in December 1971 with the intent that the new nation becomes devoid of intellectuals.
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If convicted, they might be sentenced to death.
Right after the war and liberation of Bangladesh, newspapers carried photos of Mueen and Ashraf asking people to help capture the two "killers and Al-Badr leaders".
The trial had to be held, after 42 years, in their absence as the International Crimes Tribunal-2's efforts to get then in the dock failed.
Alleged Al-Badr operation-in-charge Mueen is now in London where he has made his name as a community leader. Apart from serving as the chairman of Tottenham Mosque, he also became the director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the National Health Service of the UK, the prosecution said.
Ashraf, alleged chief executor of Al-Badr, is now in New York and has been involved in the conservative Islami Circle of North America.
Their trial was done within just over three months largely because the tribunal-appointed defence lawyers did not have the cooperation of the families of the accused. The lawyers could not even get one defence witness to testify whereas the prosecution brought in 25.
Thirty days after completing the case proceedings, Tribunal-2 on Thursday fixed today for announcing the verdict.
The prosecution and the defence placed their closing arguments between September 23 and September 30.
In their closing arguments, the prosecution said the duo "deserved" capital punishment for
the crimes "they had committed" in 1971 while the defence sought acquittals claiming that the prosecution "failed to prove the charges".
The charges are related to the abduction and killing of 18 intellectuals and professionals. The victims were: Dhaka University teachers Prof Mofazzal Haider Choudhury, Prof Munier Chowdhury, Prof Giasuddin Ahmed, Prof Sirajul Haque Khan, Dr Abul Khayer, Dr Faizul Mohiuddin, Prof Rashidul Hasan, Prof Anwar Pasha, Prof Santosh Chandra Bhattacharyya, journalists Serajuddin Hossain, Syed Najmul Haque, ANM Golam Mostafa, Nizam Uddin Ahmed, Selina Pervin, Shahidullah Kaiser, and physicians Fazle Rabbee, Alim Chaudhury and Mohammad Martuza.
This is the second war crimes case that had been held with the accused absent.
The first case was against expelled Jamaat-e-Islami member Abul Kalam Azad who was awarded capital punishment.