User:Hermitage17/sandbox

History
In 2008, just before the general election, majority of the people in Bangladesh, especially the youngsters, became very concerned of justice to the victims of the crimes committed during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 and felt the necessity of trying those criminals even 38 years after independence of the country. As it became a national demand Awami League-led 14-party alliance included this in their election manifesto. On the other hand the other large alliance, namely 4-party alliance including BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, had several alleged war criminals as their top ranking politicians. The freedom fighters and sector commanders of the liberation war pleaded no to cast vote for the alleged war criminals. The 14-part alliance won the election, held on December 29, 2008, with an overwhelming majority mainly because of their vows to prosecute war criminals.

On 29 January 2009 Mahmud-us-Samad Chowdhury, a member of the parliament (MP) from Awami League (AL), put forward the proposal to take action regarding the trial of war criminals during a session of the Jatiyo Sangshad. Other members of the party seconded the proposal and finally a resolution was passed unanimously calling on the government to ensure immediate trial of the war criminals. In 1973 the newly independent government of Bangladesh passed a law called the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act (ICT Act 1973) to investigate and prosecute the persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law committed in 1971. The Act was a complete law in itself, "providing the substantive law, definition of crimes, procedures to follow, provisions of evidence, constitution of the Tribunal, obligation of the Judges to be independent and to ensure fair trial standards, including the rights of the accused, rules to monitor investigations and interrogations, supervising arrest and viability of continued detention, rules to protect the witnesses and victims, rules regarding appeal after conviction, and the rule making authority of the judges etc."

On March 25, 2009 the government decided to try the war criminals according to the ICT Act 1973 but with some amendments to make it more up to date. As a part of the amendment procedure govt. sent the Act to the Law Commission where it was scrutinised by specialist lawyers, judges and professors of the universities. According to the recommendations made by the Law Commission some aspects of the ICT Act 1973 were amended by the legislation on 9 July 2009. With inclusion of the new provisions, trial of a political party that worked against the liberation of Bangladesh could also be held on the same charge and the government was also empowered to file appeals with the Appellate Division against acquittal order of a tribunal.

Finally on the eve of the 39th anniversary of the genocide committed by the Pakistani army the government announced the formation of a 3-member tribunal, 7-member investigation agency and 12-member prosecution team to hold the trial under the ICT Act 1973 on March 25, 2010. This landmark announcement for Bangladesh actually came just seven hours before the moment the massacre was committed on the night of March 25, 1971.