Renowned Bangladesh’s preacher Delawar Hossain Sayedee has been reprieved of death penalty. His capital punishment ruled by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court stirring debates whether there was a secret pact behind the scenes between the ruling party, Awami League (AL) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Bangladesh, although it was vehemently ruled out by the former.

The ruling party, according to its election manifesto, has been trying many for war crimes and framing charges against many more which are allegedly politically motivated.

There are reasons to suspect a secret deal. The first and foremost possibility is that the government wants JI to fend off Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in order to sap BNP’s strength in its agitation against the government. Sayedee is a key JI leader.

Sayedee’s punishment has been commuted, even though other JI leaders were previously sentenced to death by the ICT for identical crimes against humanity committed during the war in 1971.

For instance, the much-talked about trial of Abdul Quader Mollah generated much heat when he was first sentenced to life for similar crimes and then given death by the Supreme Court. ICT’s verdict had provoked countrywide protests allegedly sponsored by pro-Awami League people popularly known as “Shahabaghis” forcing the government to amend the ICT law, which allowed complainants against war criminals to appeal to the highest court and accordingly Supreme Court found Mollah guilty of genocide and converted his life sentence to death. He was the first person whose death penalty was carried out.

Surprisingly, the Supreme Court increased Mollah’s punishment sending him to the gallows while Sayedee’s death sentence was reduced to life. It raised questions if the ruling party is trying to appease JI to lure it away from the BNP-led alliance in order to weaken the anti-government protests, which are set to gain steam following the nationally and internationally unacceptable Jan. 5 general election in which more than half of lawmakers were elected uncontested, as the major political parties including BNP boycotted it. There are apparently serious flaws, government influence and pressure in the trial proceedings of war criminals raised by the United Nations and human rights bodies since it is the government which has appointed prosecutors, investigators and judges, some of them were allegedly associated with mock trials of these war criminals staged during 1990s.

There was a Skype scandal in which conversations between ICT’s presiding judge Mohammed Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin, a war crimes expert of Bangladeshi origin living in Brussels were exposed. This eventually compelled Nizamul Huq to resign.

There were neither international judges nor international lawyers allowed to participate in court proceedings. Even, renowned lawyer and expert on war crimes Toby Cadman was denied entry visa to witness the trial proceedings transforming ICT into a “domestic war crimes tribunal.”

Bangladeshis are no doubt in favor of trials of crimes against humanity. But they are distracted when these war criminals are being tried through less than fair means in the absence of recognized international principles and procedures. Unfortunately, what is happening, suggests predetermined trials.