ICSF lambasts UK SC decision in favour of war criminal Mueen-Uddin

The International Crimes Strategy Forum (ICSF) has severely castigated the UK Supreme Court's recent decision in favour of Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, who has been convicted and sentenced to death for committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971.

The ICSF in a statement on Tuesday also expressed shock and disappointment at the UK Supreme Court's decision to allow Mueen-Uddin, who is now a UK citizen, to appeal against a UK Home Office report that referred to his links with the violence in Bangladesh in 1971 and to revive his libel action against the UK home secretary.

ICSF is an independent global network of academics, experts, and activists working in the interest of justice for the victims of international crimes.

The global network said the UK Supreme Court decision was based on "several unadjudicated issues and unfounded claims" and described as "uncalled for" remarks by the UK Supreme Court against Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

"The decision reached in the course of a mere civil trial in the UK, although have no binding effect on ICT-BD's original finding of Mueen-Uddin's criminal liability, and in no way signifies his exoneration even by the UK court, is based on several unadjudicated issues, unfounded claims, and uncalled for remarks by the UKSC (against the ICT-BD) which it has no authority whatsoever to make," said the statement.

"The decision by the UKSC undermines decades-long efforts of Bangladesh and her civil society to end impunity by bringing known perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes to justice, betrays the victims and survivors of these crimes, and raises serious questions about the UK judiciary's commitment to international justice and human rights towards victims of international crimes in faraway lands," the ICSF said.

The ICT-2 of Bangladesh on November 3, 2013, handed down the death penalty to Al-Badr leaders Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan in absentia after it found them guilty on all 11 charges relating to the killing of 18 intellectuals -- nine teachers of Dhaka University, six journalists and three doctors -- on the cusp of the country's independence in 1971. Mueen is now in the UK and Ashraf is in the US.

In the statement, the ICSF said "Knowledge and understanding of ICT-BD's law, rules, and practices governing Mueen-Uddin's criminal trial in Bangladesh—which the UK courts failed to acquire in the course of this current libel case—were crucial to assessing the veracity of the claims put forward by Mueen-Uddin's legal team".

"ICSF has closely monitored the UK proceedings so far and—based on the organisation's decades of collective legal expertise on ICT-BD's process as a network supporting the victims and survivors of 1971 crimes—found the UK apex court's decision fundamentally misled, misinformed, and manifestly erroneous of law and material facts about Mueen-Uddin's original criminal case in Bangladesh. Shockingly, lawyers from both parties and the judges of all three tiers of UK courts failed to demonstrate even the minimum level of scrutiny which could have ensured identification and rectification of some of these blatant errors which the UK Supreme Court's decision is built on".

"In the past, rights groups in the UK have also raised deep concerns regarding the UK's problematic record of sheltering thousands of individuals responsible for international crimes perpetrated around the world. This latest ruling will not only reinforce the perception of the UK being a safe haven for such perpetrators but will also put in jeopardy the country's immigration filtering process concerning individuals accused and convicted of international crimes in foreign lands".

It said, "As a signatory to the Genocide Convention, and host of other international human rights treaties, such a decision signals the UK's lack of commitment towards preventing and prosecuting mass atrocity crimes and upholding victims' rights".

"Furthermore, the UK Supreme Court's greatest shortcomings in this case was its inability or unwillingness to strike a balance between the human rights of Mueen-Uddin and his victims and survivors, particularly, their right to justice. The latter was ignored".

In the statement, the ICSF questioned the Bangladesh government's role saying that "The lack of engagement from the Bangladesh Government in this matter has been conspicuous from the start which ICSF found very surprising. As a member of the Commonwealth, opportunities for diplomatic engagement, including extradition efforts, have not been adequately pursued. The handling of Interpol's Red Notice on Mueen-Uddin also appears to have been deficient, with no action whatsoever taken since 2019 when the UK case first emerged.

Such silence and inaction from Bangladesh authorities have been disheartening for those affected by the 1971 genocide. Whereas, the Bangladesh government had a responsibility to support the victims of the 1971 genocide and to uphold its justice process as the ICT-BD judgments signify conclusive judicial determination of historical facts".

The ICSF called on the government of Bangladesh to investigate its series of failures in the matter and make the findings public, assess the short and long-term implications of these failures, implement mitigating steps, and prevent repetitions of such failures.