Bangladesh 2015

had expressed much criticism of Hasina's policy, stopped putting public pressure on the Bangladeshi government. 10 In 2015, the trial against those responsible for war crimes during the 1971 liberation war continued, with two more executions. The trial goes onThe trial against the 1971 war criminals, started by the Awami League in 2010, went on among the usual controversies and violent retaliations. 11 Since the beginning of the trial, the court had prosecuted 17 people. 12 In spite of internal and international criticism, the sentences were severe.In February 2015, the tribunal ordered the execution of Abdus Subhan, age 79, former vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), declared guilty of six out of nine charges, including murder, genocide and torture.According to the prosecutors, during the 1971 war, Subhan was the head of the JI and of a pro-Pakistani militia in the district of Pabna, in the north-west of Bangladesh.Subhan was accused of having murdered hundreds of villagers in his area, most of them Hindus.After the sentence was passed, some disorder occurred outside the court, where three Molotov bombs were thrown by suspected opponents of the government. 13 On 16 June 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for 67 year old Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Jamaat-e-Islami's Secretary General, charged with abduction, torture, genocide and the killing of intellectuals.Mojaheed had been a minister in the Khaleda Zia government between 2001 and 2006.The Jamaat-e-Islami immediately called a 24-hour nationwide strike. 14 At the end of July, the death sentence for the opposition leader and former BNP Member of Parliament Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, aged 68, was also upheld.Chowdhury was proved guilty of nine charges out of 23, including genocide, murder, torment, and forced and unfair extradition of people.Chowdhury committed the crimes while supporting Pakistan's occupation forces during the 1971 liberation war and made use of his house in Chittagong as a torture detention centre.Among Chowdhury's victims were

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