The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has issued a statement calling on the government of Bangladesh to cancel the death sentence issued against Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was found guilty of eight counts of war crimes committed during the nation’s 1971 fight for independence. According to the statement:
Friday, March 1,2013 08:08 IkhwanWeb Dr. Mahmoud Ghozlan, Muslim Brotherhood leader, said: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood denounces the unjust death sentence against one of the Islamist opposition leaders in Bangladesh, and condemns the deadly force used against citizens during activities protesting the evidently wrongful sentence’. Earlier, the Anatolia news agency published a report on the killing of 30 people in clashes during demonstrations in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka to protest the death sentence unjustly given to Islamist leader Delwar Hussein Saidi, who had been arrested for political reasons, according to leaders of the Jama`a Islamiyya group. In a statement to Ikhwanweb, Dr. Ghozlan further said: ‘We call upon all pro-peace, -freedom and -justice groups and movements to intervene to stop the blatant assault against the freedoms of citizens in Bangladesh in violation of all international charters and norms of international humanitarian law. ‘The Brotherhood will shortly issue a press statement calling for the death penalty against the Islamist leader to be cancelled, especially since this case involves other leaders as well. In an earlier statement, on the 7th of February 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood said that Islamist leaders in Bangladesh had been tried for ‘political rather than criminal charges’, adding that those trials were held notwithstanding ‘the wind of freedom blowing through the world, and in spite of international conventions that prohibit infringement on public and private freedoms. ‘While we reject and condemn these unjust and unfair trials that violate all international norms and conventions, we call upon all States, and in particular Muslim countries, and international bodies and institutions to apply all pressure to put right these trials and lift the injustice befalling political detainees in Bangladesh and to apply pressure, politically and morally, to stop this human tragedy.’
A post from last week reported on the death sentence issued against Delwar Hossain.
A post from February reported on violent demonstrations held by supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) in Bangladesh protesting the war crimes conviction of party’s fourth most senior official. A post from last October reported that the war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh was planning to charge U.K. JEI leader Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin with 18 counts of murder and will be facing the death penalty in Bangladesh. A post from April initially reported on the investigation and charges against Mr. Mueen-Uddin.
The JEI was founded in 1941 and had it’s origins in the thoughts of Maulana Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi (1903-79), the most important Islamist intellectual in the history of Southeast Asia. Maududi was also a major influence on the global Muslim Brotherhood with whom the JEI has long enjoyed close relations. In the United States, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is generally considered to represent the JEI.