BBC Downplays UK Muslim Leader's War Crimes

[Teddy Bear]

The Telegraph have this article today
Leading British Muslim leader faces war crimes charges in Bangladesh

Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the NHS, a trustee of the major British charity Muslim Aid and a central figure in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, fiercely denies any involvement in a number of abductions and “disappearances” during Bangladesh’s independence struggle in the 1970s.
He says the claims are “politically-motivated” and false.

Now if the BBC ever get around to reporting this, and doubtless they are aware of it as they are also involved in the story, my guess is they will perpetuate the theme that Mueen-Uddin is claiming. Whereas if you read the whole Telegraph article the sense that he’s completely guilty is fairly laid out.
When I read this paragraph

Mr Mueen-Uddin, then a journalist on the Purbodesh newspaper in Dhaka, was a member of a fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Pakistan in the war. In the closing days, as it became clear that Pakistan had lost, he is accused of being part of a collaborationist Bangla militia, the Al-Badr Brigade, which rounded up, tortured and killed prominent citizens to deprive the new state of its intellectual and cultural elite.

it occurred to me that the BBC wouldn’t have anything to worry about then, except they probably consider themselves our ‘intellectual and cultural elite’.

Presumably once they’ve sorted out how they’re going to word this story we’ll eventually get an article from them. I'll keep my eye on what they report when they do.

[thehighlandrebel]

The Muslim Brotherhood's infiltration of Britain

www.jcpa.org/text/Mapping_Delegitimization.pdf

[Teddy Bear]

Excellent link THR. A very worthwhile read.

[Teddy Bear]

The Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has now found Mueen-Uddin guilty of multiple murders and sentenced him to death in absentia. It's alleged he murdered nine university professors, three physicians and six journalists - including a BBC reporter.

Sanaul Huq, the Inspector-General of Bangladesh's national police force, who is co-ordinating the ICT investigation, told The Mail on Sunday: 'They abducted an eye doctor, and then gouged his eyes out before killing him and dumping his body.

'They abducted a cardiologist and cut out his heart before killing him and dumping his body.

'They kidnapped a woman journalist, and cut her breasts off before killing her. Her decomposing body was later found with her breasts cut off.

Notwithstanding, not only has the UK government refused to extradite him, he's somewhat of a celebrity here, and has met Prince Charles on quite a few occasions. He's a former director of Muslim Spiritual Care in the NHS, which pretty much sums up the lunacy of this country, especially considering he was quite vocal in drumming up protests against Salman Rushdie for his book The Satanic Verses. He's held quite a few other posts too as you'll read below.

Well in May, 17 days after the Telegraph article, the BBC did run one with a video clip. While the video does tell us of some of the accusations, it also has footage of those claiming the trial would just be a political exercise and undermined whatever findings it would come to.

However the article with the video tells us very little of the real substance of the story. Considering one of those he was accused of murdering was a BBC reporter, it shows that in following its agenda, the BBC has no loyalty, or even common decency.

Here's what the BBC tell us (2 minute video available on website), followed by the Mail's story today.

East London community leader on war crimes charge

2 May 2013 Last updated at 21:46 Help
A community leader from east London has been charged with war crimes in Bangladesh.

Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin denies the charges which relate to the country's struggle for independence in the 1970s.

A court has issued an arrest warrant for him and if he is sent back he could face the death penalty.

Asif Munier, who is a son of a victim; documentary producer Gita Sahgal and defence lawyer Toby Cadman react to the charges.

Footage courtesy of A9 TV, BBC Panorama 1971 and Channel 4's Dispatches programme from 1995.

Here's today's Mail story:

Muslim leader living in Britain sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes in Bangladesh

• Chowdury Mueen-Uddin, 63, found guilty of murdering nine university professors, three physicians and six journalists - including a BBC reporter
  
• Former director of NHS Muslim Spiritual Care was a member of Islamic militia fighting against Bangladesh's independence in December 1971
  
• Judge told court: 'Justice will not be done without capital punishment'

By Mia De Graaf and Richard Shears

A prominent Muslim leader living in Britain was today sentenced to death by hanging by a Bangladesh war crimes tribunal.

Chowdury Mueen-Uddin, 63, was found guilty of murdering 18 people including nine university professors, six journalists and three physicians in December 1971 with an accomplice, now living in New York.

The atrocities took place during Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan when an estimated 3million people were killed and 200,000 women were raped.

Mr Uddin, former director of Muslim Spiritual Care in the NHS, and co-convicted Ashrafuzzaman Khan were tried in absentia after they refused to return to Bangladesh to face the trial.

There is now a warrant for their capture.

Senior judge Obaidul Hassan told a crowded court in Dhaka: ‘Justice will not be done if they are not awarded capital punishment.’

Britain refused to extradite Mr Uddin, a founder of the Muslim Council of Britain, if he were to face the death penalty when an arrest warrant was issued earlier this year.

Among the activities he has been involved in since arriving in Britain was joining the protests against Salman Rushdie’s controversial book, The Satanic Verses, and he entertained Prince Charles when the heir visited an Islamic centre in Leicester in 2003.

He has previously denied the charges of being involved in the abduction and murder of intellectuals and reporters - including a BBC journalist.

Bangladesh, formerly a province of eastern Pakistan, won independence after the nine-month conflict.

Mr Uddin is accused of working with an Islamic militia called Al-Badr to violently sabotage the nation's attempts to win independence.

Current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, formed the nation's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2010 to try war crimes suspects.

In April, the ICT made an appeal to Britain to send him to Bangaldesh to be tried alongside Mr Khan.

Sanaul Huq, the Inspector-General of Bangladesh's national police force, who is co-ordinating the ICT investigation, told The Mail on Sunday: 'They abducted an eye doctor, and then gouged his eyes out before killing him and dumping his body.

'They abducted a cardiologist and cut out his heart before killing him and dumping his body.

'They kidnapped a woman journalist, and cut her breasts off before killing her. Her decomposing body was later found with her breasts cut off.

'These victims were chosen because they were leading figures in the independence movement. Mueen-Uddin was a leading figure when it comes to killing activists. This is why we want to try him in court.

'As soon as charges are made – which I can guarantee will happen in days – we will request the British Government to hand him back to Bangladesh, and we will ask Interpol for his arrest. We will use all means, diplomatic and legal, to bring him back. If we fail, we will try him in absentia.'

Today's verdict brings the total number of war convicts up to 10 - with seven already awaiting hanging, and eight more on trial.

The evidence presented against Mr Uddin at the tribunal includes a claim by a widow, Dolly Chaudhury, who said that he was one of three men who abducted her scholar husband on December 14, 1971.

Another member of the abduction group who was caught was said to have named Mr Uddin in his confession.

Mr Uddin was working as a newspaper reporter when the war broke out.
The International Crimes Tribunal said there cannot be justice without capital punishment

But he was also said to have secretly abducted and killed leading figures of the independence movement for the Pakistani military.

Mr Huq says Mr Mueen-Uddin fled Bangladesh shortly after independence, and went to Britain via India, Nepal and then Pakistan, from where he caught a flight to London in the early Seventies.

Over the decades, he became one of Britain's most influential Muslim leaders and is now one of the trustees of the UK's leading Islamic charity, Muslim Aid.

He was one of the chief Islamic leaders who mobilised thousands of British Muslims to protest against the publication of Salman Rushdie's controversial book, The Satanic Verses, in 1989.

Mr Mueen-Uddin has also met Prince Charles, including one occasion when the heir to the throne visited the East London Mosque in 2010.

He has previously insisted that the war crimes charges against him were entirely politically motivated by Prime Minister Hasina's party as he was a member of the opposition.

The Bangladesh government has said, however, that the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the 42-year-old conflict, which lasted for nine months.

Towards its end, the bodies of intellectuals who were rounded up were found dumped in marshes and flood plains outside Dhaka with their hands bound.

Mr Khan, a Dhaka University student leader during the conflict, was described by prosecutors as being the ‘chief executor’ for the Al-Badr militia.

Mr Uddin did not want to comment on the sentencing today. When contacted on his mobile telephone, he hung up after saying: 'I'm not taking any calls.'

Let's see if the BBC update their original and only article, and if and when - what they tell us.

[Teddy Bear]

First - I've found a few more BBC articles related to this story. The problem finding them earlier was they had spelled the perpetrator's name slightly differently so it didn't show up on the search. However, none of the articles appeared before May 2nd, 17 days AFTER it was first reported by Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph.

Before focussing on how the BBC report this story it is worth reading the whole of his article from last April. Bear in mind he is in Dhaka interviewing the families of those who were victims of Mueen-Uddin, and who could positively identify him.

Why should they have named this man out of all the millions?
Here's Gilligan's first article:

Leading British Muslim leader faces war crimes charges in Bangladesh

One of Britain's most important Muslim leaders is to be charged with war crimes, investigators and officials have told The Sunday Telegraph

By Andrew Gilligan, Dhaka

8:00AM BST 15 Apr 2012

Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, director of Muslim spiritual care provision in the NHS, a trustee of the major British charity Muslim Aid and a central figure in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, fiercely denies any involvement in a number of abductions and "disappearances" during Bangladesh's independence struggle in the 1970s.

He says the claims are "politically-motivated" and false.

However, Mohammad Abdul Hannan Khan, the chief investigator for the country's International Crimes Tribunal, said: "There is prima facie evidence of Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin being involved in a series of killings of intellectuals.

"We have made substantial progress in the case against him. There is no chance that he will not be indicted and prosecuted. We expect charges in June."

Mr Mueen-Uddin could face the death penalty if convicted.

Bangladesh's Law and Justice Minister, Shafique Ahmed, said: "He was an instrument of killing intellectuals. He will be charged, for sure."

For 25 years after independence from Britain, the country now known as Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, even though the two halves were a thousand miles apart with India between them. In 1971, Bangla resentment at the "colonial" nature of Pakistani rule broke out into a full-scale revolt.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred by Pakistani troops.

Mr Mueen-Uddin, then a journalist on the Purbodesh newspaper in Dhaka, was a member of a fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which supported Pakistan in the war. In the closing days, as it became clear that Pakistan had lost, he is accused of being part of a collaborationist Bangla militia, the Al-Badr Brigade, which rounded up, tortured and killed prominent citizens to deprive the new state of its intellectual and cultural elite.

The sister-in-law of one such victim, Dolly Chaudhury, claims to have identified Mr Mueen-Uddin as one of three men who abducted her husband, Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, a prominent scholar of Bengali literature, on the night of 14 December 1971.

"I was able to identify one [of the abductors], Mueen-Uddin," she said in video testimony, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, which will form part of the prosecution case.

"He was wearing a scarf but my husband pulled it down as he was taken away. When he was a student, he often used to go to my brother in law's house. My husband, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, we all recognised that man."

Professor Chaudhury was never seen again.

Also among the as yet untested testimony is the widow of another victim, who claims that Mr Mueen-Uddin was in the group that abducted her husband, Sirajuddin Hussain, another journalist, from their home on the night of 10 December 1971.

"There was no doubt that he was the person involved in my husband's abduction and killing," said Noorjahan Seraji. One of the other members of the group, who was caught soon afterwards, allegedly gave Mr Mueen-Uddin's name in his confession.

Another reporter on Purbodesh, Ghulam Mostafa, also disappeared.

The vanished journalist's brother, Dulu, said he appealed to Mr Mueen-Uddin for help and was taken around the main Pakistani Army detention and torture centres by Mr Mueen-Uddin. Dulu Mostafa said that Mr Mueen-Uddin appeared to be well known at the detention centres, gained easy admission to the premises and was saluted by the Pakistani guards as he entered. Ghulam was never found.

Mr Mueen-Uddin's then editor at the paper, Atiqur Rahman, said that Mr Mueen-Uddin had been the first journalist in the country to reveal the existence of the Al-Badr Brigade and had demonstrated intimate knowledge of its activities.

After his colleagues disappeared, he said, Mr Mueen-Uddin had asked for his home address. Fearing that he too would be abducted, the editor gave a fake address. Mr Rahman's name, complete with the fake address, appeared on a Al-Badr death list found just after the end of the war.

"I gave that address only to Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, and when that list appeared it was obvious that he had given that address to Al Badr," Mr Rahman said in statements given to the investigators.

"I'm sure I gave the address to no-one else."

Mr Rahman then published a front-page story and picture about Mr Mueen-Uddin, who had by that stage left the city, naming him as involved in "disappearances."

This brought forward two further witnesses, Mushtaqur and Mahmudur Rahman, who claim they recognised the picture as somebody who had been part of an armed group looking for the BBC correspondent in Dhaka during the abductions. The group was unsuccessful because the BBC man had gone into hiding.

Toby Cadman, Mr Mueen-Uddin's lawyer, said on Saturday: "No formal allegations have been put to Mr Mueen-Uddin and therefore it is not appropriate to issue any formal response. Any and all allegations that Mr Mueen-Uddin committed or participated in any criminal conduct during the Liberation War of 1971 that have been put in the past will continue to be strongly denied in their entirety.

"For the Chief Investigator to be making such public comment raises serious questions as to the integrity of the investigation. The Chief Investigator will be aware that the decision as to the bringing of charges is made by the Prosecutor and not an investigator.

"Therefore, the comments by the Chief Investigator are highly improper and serves as a further basis for raising the question as to whether a fair trial may be guaranteed before the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh.

"The statement by the Bangladesh Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is a clear declaration of guilt and in breach of the presumption of innocence."

Since moving to the UK in the early 1970s, Mr Mueen-Uddin has taken British citizenship and built a successful career as a community activist and Muslim leader.

In 1989 he was a key leader of protests against the Salman Rushdie book, The Satanic Verses.

Around the same time he helped to found the extremist Islamic Forum of Europe, Jamaat-e-Islami's European wing, which believes in creating a sharia state in Europe and in 2010 was accused by a Labour minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, of infiltrating the Labour Party.

Tower Hamlets' directly-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, was expelled from Labour for his close links with the IFE.

Until 2010 Mr Mueen-Uddin was vice-chairman of the controversial East London Mosque, controlled by the IFE, in which capacity he greeted Prince Charles when the heir to the throne opened an extension to the mosque. He was also closely involved with the Muslim Council of Britain, which has been dominated by the IFE.

He was chairman and remains a trustee of the IFE-linked charity, Muslim Aid, which has a budget of £20 million. He has also been closely involved in the Markfield Institute, the key institution of Islamist higher education in the UK.

The International Crimes Tribunal, a new body set up to try alleged "war criminals" from the 1971 war, has already begun trying some Bangladesh-based leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Trials were originally supposed to start soon after the war but were cancelled by the military after a coup.

The new tribunal was welcomed by most Bangladeshis and international human rights groups as finally bringing justice and closure for the massive abuses suffered by civilians in 1971.

However, it is now subject to growing international criticism. Human Rights Watch said that the ICT's proceedings "fall short of international standards" with a "failure to ensure due process" and "serious concerns about the impartiality of the bench."

"The chairman of the tribunal was formerly one of the investigators," said Abdur Razzaq, lead counsel for the defence.

"As chairman, he will be pronouncing on an investigation report he himself produced."

The law minister, Mr Ahmed, denied this. Mr Razzaq described the tribunal as "vendetta politics" by Bangladesh's ruling Awami League against its political opponents.

Any trial of Mr Mueen-Uddin would also be fraught with practical difficulties. There is no extradition treaty between Britain and Bangladesh and the UK does not extradite in death penalty cases. Many of the witnesses are elderly and some have died.

However, Mr Hannan Khan said that Mr Mueen-Uddin was likely to be tried in absentia if he did not return.

"We have a duty to bring alleged perpetrators to justice," he said.

"They must know the fear, however long ago it was. What happened here forty years ago is on the conscience of the world."

"I have waited 40 years to see the trial of the war criminals," said the widow, Noorjahan Seraji. "I have not spent a single night without suffering and I want justice."

I showed above one of the articles that the BBC published on May 2nd.
Here's the other from the same day without video. See for yourself, what does it appear that the BBC is doing?

UK community leader Mueen-Uddin indicted in Bangladesh

A British community leader has been indicted in Bangladesh for his alleged role in the killing of 18 people during the 1971 liberation war from Pakistan.

Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin strongly denies any role in the murder of 18 intellectuals in December of that year.

He is alleged to have been a member of the Al-Badr group, which identified and killed pro-independence activists.

He is accused with another alleged Al-Badr member, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a United States citizen.

His lawyers have rejected all the allegations against him. They say that none of the accusations have ever been formally put to him and there has been no attempt to question him.

"The statements made by members of the government of Bangladesh are grossly defamatory to my client, wholly untrue and are refuted in their entirety," his lawyer Toby Cadman told the BBC.

Mr Cadman's website carries a detailed rebuttal of all the allegations against Mr Mueen-Uddin.

Holding dual British and Bangladesh citizenship, Mr Mueen-Uddin is a trustee of the UK charity Muslim Aid and played a prominent role in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain.

His website says that he is also the director of Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the UK's National Health Service.

State prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told the AFP news agency that he "has been indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide". He said that Mr Mueen-Uddin fled Bangladesh soon after the end of the war.

Mr Khan, now believed to be living in the US, faces the same charges.

An arrest warrant was issued by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka on Thursday for both men, who are accused of "directly taking part" in the killing of the 18 intellectuals between 10 December 10 and 15 December 1971.

Charges were initially put before the tribunal last month - on Thursday it accepted them and ordered their arrests.

Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed in the 1971 war. Bangladesh says up to three million people died, mostly in massacres by the Pakistan army and their local Islamist allies, the Razakar and Al-Badr forces.

But independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died.

The tribunal in Dhaka has already charged 12 people with war crimes and sentenced two people to death, including the vice-president of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party.

But human rights groups have criticised the tribunal - set up in 2010 - for being politically motivated and falling short of international standards.

In December the presiding judge of the tribunal resigned - citing "personal reasons" - after his private emails and Skype conversations were leaked to newspapers.

The emails appeared to show that judge Nizamul Huq had discussed the working of the tribunal with a Belgian-based Bangladeshi lawyer.

The opposition has argued that it was improper for a judge to discuss the case with outsiders, but the government insisted that he was not acting injudiciously and that sections of the media were "attempting to besmirch" the country's reputation.

The case against Mr Mueen-Uddin and Mr Khan is due back in the courts on 12 May, when officials say a request could be made for their extradition.

Mr Cadman told the BBC that any such request will be resisted because so far no evidence has been provided to support the case, and no undertaking has been given to ensure that Mr Mueen-Uddin will not receive the death penalty.

Under British law, no-one can be extradited if they face capital punishment.

"It is quite clear that, without wishing to prejudice any future proceedings, the death penalty and fair trial considerations will be considerable hurdles," he said.

Now it could be said that in advance of any trial the BBC were merely reporting any defence that was put to them. Bear in mind they have journalists in Bangladesh and could have easier interviewed the witnesses, unlike the Telegraph which had to pay to send Gilligan out there.

Not doing it however is what the BBC calls 'balance' and 'impartial'.

So let's see how they report the story following the verdict. Just the headline itself already shows they are doing their best to confuse any reader that might happen upon it - Bangladesh finds UK and US accused guilty of war crimes. The latest is not much better with: UK and US nationals guilty of Bangladesh war crimes

It would have been too simple to make it known, like the Mail did today that Muslim leader living in Britain sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes in Bangladesh

Here's the BBC article from today - any doubt that they are making sure the public will believe this man is innocent, and it is the Bangladesh government which is suspect. Let's face it, the Bangladesh government is not nearly as extremist or militant as the Pakistani, so who do you think the dhimmi BBC will favour?

Bangladesh finds UK and US accused guilty of war crimes

Previous rulings on the 1971 war have sparked violent reactions

A UK Muslim leader and a US citizen have been sentenced to death over crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence.

UK-Bangladeshi Muslim community leader Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khanwas were being tried in absentia by a special tribunal in Bangladesh.

They were found guilty on 11 charges relating to the abduction and killing of 18 independence supporters.

Verdicts in similar cases have sparked violent reactions in Bangladesh.

The proceedings of the International Crimes Tribunal have come under criticism from several rights groups, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has described the trials as flawed.

'Encouraged killings'
Prosecutors said Mueen-Uddin was a member of the al-Badr militia group which fought alongside the Pakistani army, against independence for what was then East Pakistan, later Bangladesh.

They said he was involved in the killing of pro-independence activists, including academics and journalists, in the final days of the war.

"They encouraged, they gave moral support to and participated in the killing of 18 intellectuals," judge Mujibur Rahman Mia told a packed court in Dhaka, reported the AFP news agency.

Later senior judge Obaidul Hassan told the court: "Justice will not be done if they are not awarded capital punishment," AFP said.

Mueen-Uddin, who lives in London, and Khan, a New York resident, both originally come from Bangladesh.

The tribunal's attempts to get them into the dock failed. They denied the charges against them, which their lawyers have described as politicised.

Their trial was completed within just over three months - largely because the tribunal-appointed defence lawyers did not have the co-operation of the families of the accused, reported Bangladesh's Daily Star.

The lawyers could not even get one defence witness to testify whereas the prosecution called 25, it said.

The court's previous judgements include death sentences for former and current senior leaders of Bangladesh's main Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

More than 100 people have died since January in violent protests set off by those verdicts handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal.

It was set up in 2010 by the current Awami League-led government to try alleged local collaborators of the Pakistani army during the war of independence, when three million people died, according to official figures.

But opposition parties have accused it of pursuing a political vendetta against its opponents.