Bangladesh Supreme Court lifts ban on Jamaat-e-Islami party

Al Jazeera:

Bangladesh has restored the registration of the country’s largest Muslim party, more than a decade after it was banned by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Sunday’s Supreme Court decision means the Jamaat-e-Islami party can now be formally listed with the Election Commission, paving the way for its participation in the next general election, which the interim government has promised to hold by June next year.

Jamaat-e-Islami lawyer Shishir Monir said the ruling would allow a “democratic, inclusive and multiparty system” in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

“We hope that Bangladeshis, regardless of their ethnicity or religious identity, will vote for Jamaat and that the parliament will be vibrant with constructive debates,” Monir told journalists.

The party had appealed for a review of a 2013 high court order cancelling its registration after Hasina’s government was ousted in August by a student-led nationwide uprising.

Hasina, 77, fled to India and is now being tried in absentia over her crackdown last year, described by prosecutors as a “systematic attack” on protesters, which according to the United Nations, killed up to 1,400 people.