Motiur Rahman Nizami

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Motiur Rahman Nizami ( Bengali মতিউর রহমান নিজামী Matiur Rahamān Nijāmī ; born March 31, 1943 in Monmothpur , near Pabna , British India ; † May 11, 2016 in Dhaka ) was a Bengali politician and leader ( Ameer , or Emir ) of the Islamist Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party (BJI).

On October 29, 2014, he was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka for war crimes during the Bangladeshi War of Independence . On January 30, 2014, he had also been sentenced to death in another trial for large-scale arms smuggling. After a petition for appeal was rejected, the judgment was carried out on May 11, 2016.

biography

Motiur Rahman Nizami visited the madrasa near his hometown . He first studied at various Islamic educational institutions in East Pakistan and in 1967 also at the Dhaka State University . In the 1960s he rose to become the leader of the youth organization Islami Chhatra Sangha of the Jamaat-e-Islami in what was then East Pakistan.

During the Bangladesh War of 1971 he was the leader of the al-Badr militias, whose task it was to act as an auxiliary force for the Pakistani army against the Bangladeshi independence fighters. Al-Badr was involved in numerous human rights crimes. The al-Badr militias particularly targeted Bengali intellectuals (teachers, doctors, professors, writers) who were kidnapped, tortured and murdered, including in the massacre of December 16, 1971, two days before the end of the war. After Bangladesh gained independence, Nizami first fled the country, but returned to Bangladesh in 1978 after a general amnesty granted by the military dictator Ziaur Rahman .

Between 1978 and 1982 Nizami was local chairman (emir) of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Dhaka and from 1983 to 1988 the party's deputy general secretary and 1988 to 2000 general secretary of the party. From 1991 to 1995 and again from 2001 to 2006 he was an elected member of the Bangladeshi Parliament ( Jatiyo Sangshad ). From 2000, Nizami was party leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Between 2001 and 2006 he held ministerial posts in the coalition government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia . From 2001 to 2003 he headed the agriculture department and from 2003 to 2006 the industry department.

Indictments and convictions

Gun smuggling charges and convictions

On April 2, 2004, a total of 10 truckloads of ammunition and weapons that had entered the port of Chittagong on two ships were confiscated by the Bangladeshi authorities. The two ships had docked in a port area that was under the Ministry of Industry. Minister of Industry at the time was Motiur Rahman Nizami. It was the largest quantity of weapons ever seized in Bangladesh. As it subsequently turned out, the weapons were supposed to be smuggled across the border into neighboring Indian Assam and were intended for the separatist rebels of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Arms smuggling lawsuits opened in 2005, but progress was slow as the government deliberately restricted them. Only those directly involved (dock workers, truck drivers, seafarers) were charged and no questions were asked about who was behind the affair. It was only after the end of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government that the proceedings were reactivated in 2007 under the new government of Prime Minister Fakhruddin Ahmed and 11 other people were charged. They included several leading politicians in the government at the time, including Nizami. On June 29, 2010, Nizami was arrested. On January 30, 2014, the competent court, the Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1, sentenced a total of 14 defendants, including Matiur Rahman Nizami and the then Interior Minister and head of the intelligence service Luftozzaman Babar (BNP), as well as the volatile ULFA leader Paresh Baruah (in absentia) for their involvement in arms smuggling to death.

Charged and convicted of human rights crimes

ICT and Supreme Court judgments
on the grave charges
No. Charge ICT Supreme
Court
1 Murder of the independence fighter Kadshimuddin in Pabna death acquittal
2 Rapes and murders in various villages in the Pabna district death death
3 Torture and murders at the Mohammadpur Sports Institute lifelong acquittal
4th Mass killings and rapes in the village of Karamja in the Pabna district death acquittal
6th 50 people killed in Santhia, Pabna district death death
7th Sohrab Ali was tortured and murdered in Brishalikha, Pabna District lifelong lifelong
8th Ordered killing of several youths in Dhaka lifelong lifelong
16 Planning and executing the killing of intellectuals in Dhaka and elsewhere death death

The Awami League under Sheikh Hasina , together with the allied parties, the 2008 general election, won, then broke a campaign promise and reactivated the International Crimes Tribunal ( International Crimes Tribunal , ICT), which is the treatment with the investigation of human rights crimes during War of Independence 1971 should deal. Several Jamaat-e-Islami politicians were subsequently arrested and charged. Nizami was also affected. He was charged on May 28, 2011 and the associated legal process began on November 13, 2013. On October 29, 2014, the verdict was pronounced. Nizami was found guilty on eight out of 16 counts. The charges included complicity or direct involvement in multiple kidnappings, at least 450 murders, torture and at least 50 rapes. Nizami was sentenced to death as a result. His defense lawyers did not deny the crimes themselves, but stated that Nizami's guilt had not been proven with absolute certainty and that they would therefore go on appeal. On January 6, 2016, the Bangladesh Supreme Court dismissed Nizami's appeal and reiterated the death sentence .

The verdict was received mixedly by the Bangladeshi public. Many greeted it empathetically as the long-awaited justice. The supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, however, spoke of a politically motivated process.

On May 5, 2016, the Bangladesh Supreme Court upheld the death penalty against Nizami in a final appeal. Nizami was acquitted on three counts, while the remaining five counts remained. With this, Nizami had exhausted all legal possibilities to contest the judgment. The only way to avoid the death penalty would have been to appeal to the president for clemency, which Nizami refused.

Following the final verdict, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry sharply criticized the verdict and the trial. As a result, the Pakistani ambassador was summoned to Dhaka and received a protest note from the Bangladeshi government, which regretted “Pakistan's interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh” and “continued support of Pakistani convicted war criminals”.

On May 11, 2016 at around 12 noon local time, 73-year-old Nizami was hanged in Dhaka Central Prison . It was the fifth executed death sentence since the war crimes trials began.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Motiur Rahman Nizami: Short biography. bdchronicle.com, October 29, 2014, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c The Chief Prosecutor Versus Motiur Rahman Nizami. (PDF) International CrimesTribunal-1 (ICT-1) Old High Court Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh. ICT-BD Case No.03 OF 2011, October 29, 2014, accessed on February 12, 2016 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Short biography of Nizami. Dhaka Tribune , October 29, 2014, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  4. ^ Rupak Bhattacharjee: With Jamaat marginalized, Bangladesh's political dynamics headed for change. The Daily Observer, January 20, 2016, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Bangladesh upholds death sentence for Islamist leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. The Guardian / Agence France-Presse, January 6, 2016, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  6. ↑ a b Rupak Bhattacharjee: IDSA COMMENT: Chittagong Tribunal Verdict and its Implications. Institute for Defense Studies and Analyzes (IDSA), April 3, 2014, accessed on February 12, 2016 .
  7. ↑ AFP: Bangladesh Islamist party leader sentenced to death for arms smuggling. The Guardian, January 30, 2014, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b Ashif Islam Shaon: SC upholds Nizami's death penalty. Dhaka Tribune, May 5, 2016, accessed May 5, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b Bangladesh court upholds death sentence for Nizami. al Jazeera, January 6, 2016, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Bangladesh Islamist leader Motiur Rahman Nizami sentenced to death. BBC News, October 29, 2014, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Pakistan high commissioner summoned. The Daily Star, May 10, 2016, accessed May 10, 2016 .
  12. ^ Death designer Nizami hanged for war crimes. The Daily Star, May 11, 2016, accessed May 10, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Mohammad Jamil Khan, Arifur Rahman Rabbi: Al-Badr kingpin Nizami executed. Dhaka Tribune, May 11, 2016, accessed May 10, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Nizami, Motiur Rahman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES নিজামী, মতিউর রহমান (Bengali)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bangladeshi politician of the Jamaat-e-Islami
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Monmothpur near Pabna , British India
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 2016
Place of death Dhaka , Bangladesh