The full copy of the verdict dismissing Mir Quasem’s review plea has been published.
A copy of the verdict will be sent to the tribunal and the jail on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld death sentence for condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
There is now no legal bar to executing his death sentence for the abduction, torture and killing of teenage freedom fighter Jasim Uddin during Bangladesh’s nine-month War of Independence from Pakistan.
Mir Quasem can only seek president’s mercy by repenting for his crimes. The government will execute the sentence if he does not seek clemency or the president rejects his petition.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha dismissed a petition filed by Mir Quasem Ali seeking review of its earlier verdict that upheld his death penalty for his wartime crimes.
The other judges of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mohammad Bazlur Rahman.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said they were happy with the verdict. The process of execution followed in previous war crimes cases would be maintained this time as well, he said.
The attorney general also said at the hearing that the Appellate Division acquitted Mir Quasem of one of the two charges, for which he was given death sentence by the tribunal, due to ‘incompetence’ of the prosecution and investigation panel.
The defence tried to defer the review petition hearing on numerous occasions.
According to Attorney General Alam, the time of hearing Mir Quasem’s review petition is double the other cases.
An official of the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office said a certified copy of the full review verdict will be sent shortly to the Dhaka Central Jail through the International Crimes Tribunal.
The 63-year-old war criminal is in the jail at Gazipur’s Kashimpur.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, the lawyer for Mir Quasem, said the Jamaat leader and his family would make the decision on whether to seek president’s mercy.
Mir Quasem is the sixth war criminal to see the verdict at its execution level. He is the fifth top Jamaat leader whose death sentence for war crimes has been upheld in the final verdict.
A top Jamaat-e-Islami leader and financier, Quasem filed the review petition after the apex court published its full verdict and the International Crimes Tribunal issued the death warrant against him on June 6.
The war crimes tribunal sentenced Quasem, now 64, to death on November 3, 2014 on two charges including killing seven people after abduction in Chittagong. He was also awarded a total of 72-year imprisonment on eight other proven charges of abduction, conspiracy and planning.
Later, the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence on March 9. Quasem’s family and his party terms the judgement a “judicial killing.”
A key player behind the formation of notorious al-Badr force in Chittagong during the Liberation War, Quasem had set up makeshift torture camps at different places in the port city including Daleem Hotel in Andorkilla area. He was known as “Bangali Khan” (Khan referred to as Pakistani occupation forces) for his atrocities.
Source: Ittefaq
