Hearing on Mojaheed, SQ Chy review pleas tomorrow

The Supreme Court is set to hold hearing on two petitions tomorrow, seeking review of its judgments that upheld the death penalty for war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.

The pleas have been enlisted in the tomorrow’s hearing list of a four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, according to the SC website.

Meanwhile, a High Court bench refused to hear a writ petition filed by Salauddin’s wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury challenging the constitutional provision that allows the trial of an individual for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. 

She submitted the petition on November 2, challenging the legality of the appointments of the first three judges to the International Crimes Tribunal-1, which dealt with the BNP leader’s war crimes case.

In the petition, Farhat prayed to the HC to declare the appointments of three ICT judges as illegal.

She said the constitution had earlier allowed the trial of a group of individuals for committing crimes against humanity, but the 15th amendment allowed trial of individuals.

The HC bench of Justice Tariq-ul-Hakim and Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli dropped the petition from its hearing list, saying that the issues mentioned in the writ petition have already been settled by the HC.

The Appellate Division has already given a judgment on the appeal of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury in the war crimes case, the bench said, adding that time will be wasted if this writ petition is heard at this stage.

The court also told petitioner’s counsel Mohsen Rashid that he can move the writ petition before another bench.      

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mojaheed and BNP’s standing committee member Salauddin on October 14 submitted the review petitions to the SC, seeking acquittal on all the charges brought against them.

In the petitions, the condemned war criminals sought reconsideration of the SC judgments on the ground that they were sentenced for “offences committed by others”.

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

The tribunal issued the death warrants on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.