Dhaka, Feb. 4 (PTI): A leading American journalist, who covered Bangladesh in the 1970s, has told the High Court here that the fate of an executed 1971 Liberation War veteran had been decided by former President Zia-ur-Rahman ahead of his trial in a military court in 1976.

“I believe... that the verdict was pre-determined before the (military) tribunal convened,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Lifschultz in a written statement to the High Court.

Lifschultz, who was the Bangladesh correspondent and subsequently the New Delhi-based South Asia correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review in the 1970s, said the decision to hang Col Abu Taher was taken by Zia-ur-Rahman.

Bangladesh witnessed a series of coups and counter coups since the August 15, 1975, assassination of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

After one such coup, Taher had, along with some army soldiers, rescued Zia-ur-Rahman from captivity.

But the former President believed that the Left-leaning Taher would eventually be an obstacle for his political ambitions.

The journalist’s comments came at a hearing on a writ filed by Taher’s family challenging the military law and regulations under which the military tribunal had been formed.