The Supreme Court is likely to start next month hearing the appeal of war crimes convict Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on November 2 last year sentenced Quasem to death after it found him guilty on 10 charges of abducting, confining and torturing people during the Liberation War.
Around four weeks later, he filed an appeal with the SC challenging the tribunal’s verdict.
Quasem, a member of Jamaat’s Central Executive Council, in his appeal cited 181 reasons for his acquittal on all the charges.
Talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the apex court might start hearing the appeal next month as the court would reopen on January 3 after the ongoing annual vacation.
He hoped that most of the 10 pending appeals in war crimes cases would be heard and disposed of by the SC within next year if the current pace of court proceedings continued.
On December 8, the Appellate Division of the SC concluded hearing the appeal of war crimes convict Motiur Rahman Nizami, ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, and fixed January 6 for delivering the verdict.
Apart from Quasem, other appellants in war crimes cases are Jamaat Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam and Senior Nayebe Amir Maulana Abdus Subhan, expelled Brahmanbaria Awami League leader Mobarak Hossain and former state minister Syed Mohammad Qaisar.
Two international crimes tribunals had convicted and sentenced them to death for committing crimes against humanity during the war in 1971.
Besides, the government filed an appeal with the SC seeking death penalty for former Jatiya Party lawmaker Abdul Jabbar, now on the run.
The ICT-1 on February 24 last year had sentenced Jabbar to imprisonment until death in absentia for crimes against humanity.
The SC has so far disposed of the appeals of five war criminals. Four of them have been executed. They are Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Another war criminal Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee has been behind bars as the SC commuted his death sentence to jail until death.
The ICT-1 had sentenced Sayedee to death for crimes against humanity.
Source: The Daily star
