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Convicted, may not be punished

Laws of UK, US stand in way of extradition

Rezaul Karim and Mahbubur Rahman Khan
The tribunal's verdict of capital punishment for Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan met the expectations of justice seekers yesterday. But they were hardly relieved by the judgement as the convicts were still at large in the UK and the USA.
And there is little hope of bringing the duo back home as the laws of FROM PAGE 1
those countries do not support extradition of any death convict.
Family members of war crimes victims believe that justice will be served only when the verdict is executed.
After reading out the order of death sentences, Justice Obaidul Hassan, chairman of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-2, said since the convicts have been absconding, their death sentences will be executed either upon their arrest or surrender before the tribunal, whichever is earlier.
Mueen and Ashraf were among the country's most wanted criminals after the Liberation War in 1971 for killing intellectuals as part of Al-Badr's plan to eliminate the bright minds just before the country's independence.
Photographs of Mueen, operation in charge of the intellectual killing mission of Al-Badr, and Ashrafuzzaman, chief executor of the killing mission, were published in newspapers after the country's independence, with a call to capture the two.
Mueen fled the country immediately after December 16,1971. He rose in the UK as a Muslim leader.
He took citizenship in the UK. He was once the vice-chairman of East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre and a director of Muslim Spiritual Care Provision at the National Health Service.
According to a local source, he is now a trustee of Muslim Aid in London.
Other convict Ashrafuzzaman also made a place for himself in the USA's South Asian Muslim community by becoming the chief of the Queens, New York branch of Islami Circle of North America. He is currently an US citizen.
The UK will not extradite its citizen Chowdhury Mueen Uddin to Bangladesh because he has been sentenced to death. The UK as a member of the EuropeanUnion (EU) has abolished death sentence.
Warren Daley, spokesperson of the British High Commission in Dhaka, said: "The UK has made
clear its support for Bangladesh's efforts to bring to justice those accused of atrocities committed in 1971. Along with our EU partners, we are, however, opposed to the application of the death penalty in all circumstances."
"We'll consider any extradition request from Bangladesh within the terms of the extradition act of2003. But in line with this act, the government will not order a person's extradition to Bangladesh if he could be, will be or has been sentenced to death for an offence," added the official.
US embassy spokesperson Kelly McCarthy said, "We are aware of reports that a US citizen has been sentenced by Bangladesh's war crimes court. We have nothing more to add."
The State Department cannot respond to "hypothetical requests” for deportation or transfer of individuals to Bangladesh, mentioned Kelly.
Explaining the related US law, a senior foreign ministry official said the US does not allow trial of its citizens outside its territory. So, the US will not entertain any request to try Ashrafuzzaman Khan in a Bangladeshi court.
As per the US law, if any of its citizens commits any crime outside its territory, the US takes the accused back home and tries him/her in an US court.
Moreover, Bangladesh has no extradition treaty with the US and the UK, according to foreign ministry officials.
They said the process to approach the two countries for sending back Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan is a lengthy one because the court, along with the full text of its verdict, will ask the foreign ministry to approach the countries concerned for bringing the convicts back home.
Talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said they [Mueen and Ashraf] had done irreparable damage to the country during the Liberation War. "The countries should send them back to show respect to human civilisation," he added.
Calling the USA's policy as "double standard”, the attorney general said the country at times had
launched attacks on others to snatch its wanted criminals, but it (USA) is reluctant to extradite such war criminals to Bangladesh.
The countries, which are sheltering war criminals, could not feel that it was not impossible for them (war criminals) to have links with Islamist militancy and cause security problems there.
He urged all to mobilise public opinion for bringing the absconding war criminals back home.
Prosecutor Tureen Afroz said Bangladesh still has scope for a treaty with the USA. "We didn't know that Ashrafuzzaman would take shelter in the USA. So, there is still a possibility of entering a one-to-one treaty with the USA", she noted.
The UK, said the lawyer, is a state party of the Rome Statue (the treaty that established the International Criminal Court), according to which it could try war criminals with its own court and law. "Therefore, the UK should oblige by the Rome Statue and send back Mueen to Bangladesh."
Briefing the press at his office yesterday, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed said the government will try to bring the two convicts back home from abroad to execute the tribunal's verdict.
Talking to BBC Bangla Service, Mueen's British lawyer Toby Cadman said,
"We are shocked to hear of the death sentence awarded by such a tribunal, which we think is very much flawed. I think the tribunal has lost its credibility."
Asked why the two accused did not face the trial in person to prove their innocence, he said, “No direct and formal contact was made with Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman. No formal request was made to them from the state [Bangladesh] to face the tribunal."
Meanwhile, activists of Gonojagoron Mancha, UK, at a rally at Hanbury Street, East London yesterday demanded imprisonment of Mueen.
The rally was held under the slogan "One nation, one fight, justice for genocide." Speakers at the rally urged the UK authorities to open an inquiry into Mueen's role in British public life.