Mojaheed decides to seek review of SC verdict

Death row convict Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed has decided to file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a review of its ruling that upheld his death penalty for planning and instigating killings of intellectuals and professionals in 1971.

Mojaheed gave the instruction to file the review petition when five of his lawyers met him at Dhaka Central Jail for 30 minutes around 11:25am, his counsel Shishir Manir told The Daily Star.

The review petition will be filed in 15 days after getting the full judgement of the apex court, said Manir, who along with four other counsels met the Jamaat-e-Islami leader.

“He (Mojaheed) told us (lawyers) that he could not understand that the SC has sentenced him to death for killing whom,” the lawyer said.

Mojaheed is mentally and physically well, he added.

The Jamaat leader hoped that the SC will consider his review prayer and acquit him of all the charges, the lawyer added.

On June 16, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty of Mojaheed for planning and instigating the killing of intellectuals and professionals in 1971.

During the Liberation War in 1971, he was chief of infamous Al-Badr Bahini, one of the Pakistani occupation army's auxiliary forces, responsible for abducting, torturing and killing freedom fighters, intellectuals and pro-liberation people.

This is the first time that an ex-minister has been sentenced to death by the SC for war crimes. Mojaheed is also the first war crimes convict facing death for the killing of intellectuals and professionals.