23/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU criticises death sentence. In a press release on Tuesday, 22 January, the spokesperson for the EU high representative for foreign affairs criticised the previous day's decision by the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh to sentence, in absentia, Abul Kalam Azad to death, as part of the legal proceedings for crimes committed during the war preceding the independence of Bangladesh. The spokesperson said that “from the start of the trials, the European Union has repeatedly stressed its concern about the possible application of the death penalty under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, given its opposition on principle to capital punishment”. He added that the high representative is calling on the Bangladeshi authorities to commute this sentence and to introduce a moratorium on executions as a first step towards definitive abolition of capital punishment. Abul Kalam Azad is 63 years old and is the first person to be sentenced by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT). (CG/transl.fl)