SC starts hearing war criminal Mojaheed's appeal against death penalty

The Supreme Court yesterday started hearing the appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed challenging his death sentence for his crimes against humanity committed during the country's 1971 Liberation War.

After concluding yesterday's proceedings, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed May 4 for resuming the hearing.

Mojaheed filed his appeal with the SC on August 11, 2013 after the International Crimes Tribunal-2 had given him death penalty in connection with three charges on July 17 the same year.

According to the verdict, Mojaheed had led a “death squad” named Al-Badr that worked as an auxiliary force for the Pakistani army.

Meanwhile, Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik, who were members of the previous SC benches for hearing three other appeals filed by war criminals Abdul Quader Mollah, Delawar Hossain Sayedee and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, were not in yesterday's bench for hearing the appeal of Mojaheed.

SC Registrar Syed Aminul Islam told The Daily Star that he did not know anything about constitutions of SC benches.