Mojaheed, SQ Chy seek SC review

Condemned war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court to review its judgments that upheld their death penalties for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin submitted two review petitions to the appeal section of the SC through their lawyers seeking acquittal on all the charges brought against them.

Sources at the attorney general's office said two applications will be filed with the SC within a few days for fixing dates for hearings of the review petitions.

Talking to reporters after filing the review petitions, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, principal counsel for both the convicts, said his clients sought reconsideration of the SC judgments on the ground that they were sentenced for “offences committed by others”.

If the statements of witnesses are properly examined, the death penalties of the two will be scrapped, the lawyer told newsmen at the auditorium of Supreme Court Bar Association.

He said many countries have abolished the death sentence as capital punishment. “Even the United Nations has said the death penalty as a punishment is inhuman.”

Khandker Mahbub said they will pray to the SC to consider their review appeals on humanitarian grounds.

Fresh evidence has been included in the review petition of Mojaheed showing that the infamous Al-Badr force was operated and led by Pakistan military in 1971 and therefore, “Mojaheed, as a civilian, was not its commander”, he mentioned.

The SC on June 16 upheld the death penalty of Mojaheed, chief of Al-Badr, for planning and instigating the killings of intellectuals and professionals at the fag end of the 1971 Liberation War.

The lawyer claimed Salauddin had been studying at Punjab University in Pakistan during the war and therefore, he was not involved in any crimes against humanity.

Shishir Manir, another lawyer for Mojaheed, told The Daily Star that the 38-page review petition of the Jamaat secretary general cited 32 grounds for consideration of his prayer.

The list of Al-Badr and other collaborating forces “didn't mention the name of Mojaheed”. The list along with the probe report was submitted to the war crimes tribunal by the investigating officer of the case, he claimed.

Huzzatul Islam, another lawyer for Salauddin, told this newspaper that his client's 108-page review petition contained 10 grounds for consideration of his petition.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam hoped the death penalties of the two convicts will be upheld after the review of the SC verdicts.

He said scope for upholding review petitions in criminal cases is very limited.

The two applications for fixing dates for hearings of the review petitions will be put before the SC chamber judge on October 20, added Alam.

The SC upheld the capital punishment of the two convicts in June and July after hearing their appeals against the verdicts of the war crimes tribunal.

The International Crimes Tribunal issued execution warrants for the two on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.