Tabarul Huq, Staff Correspondent,
bdnews24.com
Published: 16 Dec 2020 10:06 PM BdST
Updated: 16 Dec 2020 10:24 PM BdST
The International Crimes Tribunal has convicted 95 war criminals in a decade, but half of them are on the run. );
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The Awami League promised to constitute the tribunal and hold war crimes trials in the manifesto of the ninth general election in 2009, and formed the International Crimes Tribunal or ICT the following year.
The tribunal has delivered verdicts in 41 cases of crimes against humanity and convicted 95 of the 105 accused. Of the 69 death-row convicts, 35 are on the run and one other died as a fugitive. Life terms were handed down to 24 of the accused, but 12 of them are currently absconding.
Now, the newly-appointed attorney general, AM Amin Uddin, said he will take initiative for hearing the appeals. I will inquire about the war-crime appeals pending with the Appellate Division. If they are ready for hearing, I will take an initiative in January for their hearing, he told this newspaper.
The last war-crime related appeal hearing took place at the Appellate Division of Supreme Court on December 3, 2019. Convicted war criminal Syed Mohammad Qaisar filed the appeal, challenging the death penalty handed to him by a war-crimes tribunal in 2014.
The Appellate Division has so far disposed of only nine such appeals, including the one Qaisar filed, in the last seven years.