War trial: Hearing on Mir Quasem plea deferred

The Supreme Court today deferred for a week the hearing on the appeal filed by war criminal Mir Quasem Ali challenging his death penalty.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed February 9 for hearing the appeal as Quasim’s lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain prayed for time for taking preparation.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on November 2, 2014 sentenced Quasem to death after it found him guilty on 10 charges of abducting, confining and torturing people during the Liberation War in 1971.

Around four weeks later, he filed an appeal with the SC challenging the tribunal's verdict.

Quasem, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami Central Executive Council, in his appeal cited 181 reasons for his acquittal on all the charges.