11. International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) (Bangladesh): The Issues of Fairness and Transparency

During the 9-month-long Bangladesh Liberation War, millions of Bangladeshi people were subject to atrocious war crimes. In the post-liberation period under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Awami League Government took certain specific steps to hold war crimes trials, but eventually abandoned for a number of political considerations. In 2009, Awami League came to power for the third time and established the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic mechanism, to try alleged war criminals. Initially, two tribunals were established in 2010 and 2012, but the second one has been placed in abeyance in September 2015 as number of cases dwindled. This chapter attempts to understand the jurisprudential dimension of war crimes trial in its historic and cultural context. It further explores whether the Rules of Evidence and Procedure of war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh meets international standards of fairness and transparency. It also evaluates the criticism that the Tribunal is still far away from being fair and transparent in its operations. This study finally makes a brief assessment of the repercussions of the execution of top Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders.