Hearings on a review petition filed against the death penalty for war crimes convict Kamaruzzaman will start on Apr 1.
The Appellate Division full bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha fixed the date on Monday.
Others in the four-member bench are Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state during Monday’s hearing while Moulavi Wahedullah stood for Kamaruzzaman.
Wahedullah told the court that the chief defence counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain could not attend the hearing due to personal reasons and sought four weeks time.
The attorney general said that there were other lawyers representing the defendant other than Hossain, who are able to attend the hearing.
The court, however, granted the defence’s plea for time and set Apr 1 for hearing the review petition.
In May, 2013, Kamaruzzaman was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 after it found him guilty of five of the seven charges levelled against him by the prosecution.
The Appellate Division upheld the death sentence.
As the acting President of Islami Chhatra Sangha in Mymensingh in 1971, he had been the ‘chief organiser’ of the Al Badr in the region during the 1971 Liberation War.
Vigilante militia Al Badr was formed to assist the Pakistan army to thwart Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, the court had observed.
The three of judges of the International Crimes Tribunal-2 had signed his death warrant on Feb 19 this year after the Supreme Court published the full verdict.
The warrant was then read out to Kamaruzzaman in prison.
As per the law, he was entitled to file a review against the Supreme Court’s verdict within 15 days of the publication of the full verdict.
On Mar 5, a review petition was filed after Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers met him in prison the previous day.
“One of the justices held different views in the verdict and our review plea will follow his points,” lawyer Tajul Islam told reporters after the meeting that lasted a little less than an hour.
The review petition has stalled the execution of the death warrant, the attorney general had said after that.
Source: Bd news24
