SC may fix date for hearing 2 appeals

The Supreme Court has included appeals of two war crimes related cases in its today's cause list.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, is set to pass an order on the appeals filed by Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam and Jatiya Party leader Syed Mohammad Qaisar.

Assistant Attorney General Bashir Ahmed yesterday told The Daily Star that the SC might today fix dates for hearing the appeals. The SC did not hear any of 20 war crimes-related appeals pending with its Appellate Division since it disposed of the appeal of war criminal and Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali about one and a half years ago.

Nineteen of the appeals were filed by convicted war criminals, and the other by the government.

Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Azharul on January 29, 2015, challenged the death penalty awarded to him by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 in December 2014.

In his appeal, Azharul claimed himself innocent and sought acquittal on the five charges he was found guilty.

Tribunal-1 on December 30, 2014 handed death penalty to Azharul on three out of six charges of crimes committed during the Liberation War.

The 62-year-old Jamaat leader was awarded imprisonment on two charges. The court, however, acquitted him of the other charge.

Qaisar, former state minister during the HM Ershad-led regime, on January 19, 2015, challenged the death penalty handed down to him by Tribunal-2 for his crimes in 1971.

His lawyer Joynul Abedin Tuhin filed an appeal with SC, which mentioned 56 reasons why the apex court should consider acquitting him of all war crime charges.

Qaisar was sentenced to death on December 23, 2014.