Berliner Boersenzeitung - Five questions as Bangladesh hangs top Islamist leader

EUR -
AED 3.996506
AFN 72.900955
ALL 98.308217
AMD 421.18485
ANG 1.962247
AOA 992.329453
ARS 1080.181434
AUD 1.648531
AWG 1.958544
AZN 1.857939
BAM 1.951173
BBD 2.198287
BDT 130.111476
BGN 1.956591
BHD 0.410043
BIF 3149.991364
BMD 1.08808
BND 1.432642
BOB 7.540328
BRL 6.302264
BSD 1.088718
BTN 91.571688
BWP 14.498022
BYN 3.563249
BYR 21326.366401
BZD 2.194656
CAD 1.511963
CDF 3094.499133
CHF 0.940172
CLF 0.037633
CLP 1038.41996
CNY 7.73222
CNH 7.746362
COP 4803.87284
CRC 558.775019
CUC 1.08808
CUP 28.834118
CVE 110.603516
CZK 25.336699
DJF 193.3737
DKK 7.458603
DOP 65.774638
DZD 144.733286
EGP 53.392866
ERN 16.321199
ETB 131.77079
FJD 2.476416
FKP 0.832565
GBP 0.839508
GEL 2.975906
GGP 0.832565
GHS 17.800855
GIP 0.832565
GMD 77.8544
GNF 9390.129613
GTQ 8.412053
GYD 227.985681
HKD 8.458929
HNL 27.278588
HRK 7.495815
HTG 143.28025
HUF 408.070771
IDR 17161.033261
ILS 4.081584
IMP 0.832565
INR 91.532868
IQD 1425.384693
IRR 45813.605196
ISK 148.925795
JEP 0.832565
JMD 172.032073
JOD 0.771557
JPY 165.731956
KES 140.362613
KGS 93.357036
KHR 4433.92573
KMF 492.35874
KPW 979.271681
KRW 1500.402352
KWD 0.333431
KYD 0.907373
KZT 532.008489
LAK 23872.473319
LBP 97491.960445
LKR 319.203098
LRD 208.748593
LSL 19.05177
LTL 3.212817
LVL 0.658168
LYD 5.233375
MAD 10.714325
MDL 19.43545
MGA 5021.488734
MKD 61.626889
MMK 3534.041131
MNT 3697.295593
MOP 8.716771
MRU 43.523418
MUR 50.084443
MVR 16.759449
MWK 1888.364769
MXN 21.88825
MYR 4.748922
MZN 69.534196
NAD 19.052337
NGN 1788.575322
NIO 40.014105
NOK 11.970859
NPR 146.514621
NZD 1.818666
OMR 0.418924
PAB 1.088848
PEN 4.100157
PGK 4.362659
PHP 63.604756
PKR 302.322999
PLN 4.35896
PYG 8574.667539
QAR 3.961265
RON 4.975758
RSD 117.039324
RUB 107.716482
RWF 1484.141009
SAR 4.086665
SBD 9.037832
SCR 14.742944
SDG 654.466525
SEK 11.670305
SGD 1.435493
SHP 0.832565
SLE 24.726642
SLL 22816.488369
SOS 621.293686
SRD 37.980509
STD 22521.057486
SVC 9.526411
SYP 2733.833729
SZL 19.052206
THB 36.642724
TJS 11.595724
TMT 3.819161
TND 3.371955
TOP 2.548391
TRY 37.375003
TTD 7.380702
TWD 34.80169
TZS 2933.325215
UAH 45.127108
UGX 3984.551734
USD 1.08808
UYU 45.362435
UZS 13943.744408
VEF 3941626.666042
VES 46.573125
VND 27577.385532
VUV 129.179066
WST 3.047912
XAF 654.423259
XAG 0.032257
XAU 0.0004
XCD 2.94059
XDR 0.817883
XOF 653.386429
XPF 119.331742
YER 271.856803
ZAR 19.061414
ZMK 9794.022753
ZMW 29.20655
ZWL 350.36129
  • CMSC

    0.1100

    24.64

    +0.45%

  • NGG

    0.1900

    64.45

    +0.29%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.11

    +0.14%

  • VOD

    -0.0300

    9.32

    -0.32%

  • RBGPF

    66.4100

    66.41

    +100%

  • GSK

    0.0900

    36.97

    +0.24%

  • RIO

    -0.3200

    65.01

    -0.49%

  • RELX

    -0.0200

    47.06

    -0.04%

  • AZN

    0.0100

    71.43

    +0.01%

  • CMSD

    0.1103

    24.92

    +0.44%

  • BTI

    0.0400

    35.11

    +0.11%

  • SCS

    0.1100

    12.25

    +0.9%

  • BCC

    0.0500

    134.26

    +0.04%

  • JRI

    0.0500

    13.1

    +0.38%

  • BCE

    -2.9800

    29.12

    -10.23%

  • BP

    0.5000

    29.73

    +1.68%

Five questions as Bangladesh hangs top Islamist leader
Five questions as Bangladesh hangs top Islamist leader

Five questions as Bangladesh hangs top Islamist leader

Bangladesh Tuesday executed the chief of its main Islamist party for atrocities committed during the country's 1971 independence war with Pakistan.

Text size:

Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged at a Dhaka prison after he refused to appeal for clemency against the death sentence handed down following his conviction for war crimes.

The 73-year-old's death will exacerbate tensions in the Muslim-majority country after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected Islamist militants.

- Who was Nizami? -

Nizami was chief of Jamaat-e-Islami which counts hundreds of thousands of Muslims as members.

After years of serving as the party's second in command, he took the helm in 2000 and made Jamaat a close partner of the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The alliance secured a landslide victory in elections the following year, and Jamaat was given a role in governing the nation.

Nizami served both as industry and agriculture minister from 2001-06, before the alliance lost office to bitter rival Sheikh Hasina's secular party.

In 2010, he was arrested and charged for his bloody role in opposing Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971 -- almost four decades earlier.

During his subsequent trial for war crimes, he was accused of spending his student days running a killing machine which murdered anyone who agitated for independence.

- Why was he executed now? -

After coming to power in 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up the International Crimes Tribunal to try Jamaat and other opposition leaders for their roles during the nine-month war.

Rights groups say the tribunal's trials fall short of global standards and lack international oversight, while Hasina's secular government says they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict.

Nizami faced 16 charges of murder, rape and other crimes and was convicted in 2014.

After a failed appeal against his death sentence, Nizami filed a last-ditch plea with the Supreme Court which last week upheld his execution order.

Nizami refused to seek the president's clemency -- his only chance to escape the gallows but which would require him to admit his guilt -- paving the way for his hanging.

- What was Nizami convicted of? -

Nizami insisted that his opposition to Bangladesh's breakaway from Pakistan was only ideological, during his role as head of Jamaat's now defunct student wing.

But during his trial, prosecutors accused Nizami of being a bloodthirsty zealot who turned the youth wing into a de-facto death squad which assassinated professors, writers and journalists in one of the most gruesome chapters of the war.

Victims' bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh on the outskirts of the capital.

The tribunal has convicted Nizami and about a dozen other opposition leaders of war crimes.

- What's the likely reaction? -

Jamaat says the tribunal's trials are politically motivated, part of a government conspiracy to eliminate the party's leadership.

Convictions of other Jamaat leaders in 2013 triggered clashes between protesting Islamists and police that left at least 500 people dead, in the worst political violence since the country's independence.

But a fresh wave of bloodshed after Nizami's execution is unlikely.

A major government crackdown after the 2013 violence saw tens of thousands of Jamaat supporters arrested. Dozens were allegedly abducted by security officers and later found dead, according to the opposition.

The crackdown severely weakened Jamaat, whose entire current leadership are in hiding or have fled abroad.

When Jamaat's second in command was hanged last November following his conviction for war crimes, few party cadres took to the streets.

Jamaat called a day of prayer and a nationwide strike following the Supreme Court's rejection last week of Nizami's appeal. But the strike passed off peacefully.

Experts warn, however, that the crackdown has also radicalised some of Hasina's most hardline opponents, resulting in the string of recent murders of secular bloggers and liberal activists.

- Who's next on the list? -

Nizami is the fourth Jamaat leader and the fifth opposition leader hanged since the tribunal was set up.

At least four other Jamaat leaders have been tried and convicted of war crimes. Among them is Jamaat's key financier Mir Quashem Ali who has already lost an appeal against his death sentence.

He could be hanged within months if he loses his final appeal, while the Supreme Court is still hearing the other leaders' pleas.

(Y.Yildiz--BBZ)