DHAKA: A special Bangladeshi war crimes court on Monday charged its first suspect with atrocities including genocide, arson, rape and religious persecution during the country's 1971 war of independence.
Delawar Hossain Sayedee, a leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, will be tried at the tribunal set up last year to investigate those accused of crimes committed during the nine-month war against Pakistan.
“Sayedee has been charged with 20 counts including crimes against humanity, murder, genocide, rape, arson, looting and forcibly converting Hindus to Islam,” prosecutor Abdur Rahman Howlader told AFP.
Judge Nizamul Haq read out the charges to Sayedee in a crowded Dhaka courtroom. If found guilty, Sayedee could face death by hanging.
Bangladesh, which was called East Pakistan until 1971, has struggled to come to terms with its violent birth.
The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war.
The court is called the International Crimes Tribunal but it is a domestic set-up with no United Nations oversight or involvement.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.