Submit concise statements on Quasem plea in 4 weeks: SC

The Supreme Court today gave four more weeks to both the defence and the state counsels for submitting separate concise statements on the appeal filed by convicted war criminal Mir Quasem Ali against his death sentence.

After passing the order, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha said the appeal will be considered as ready for hearing if the concise statements are not submitted before it within the given time.

The apex court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Quasem Ali seeking a four-week time for submitting the summary statement.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader submitted the petition through his lawyer Joynal Abedin on May 26, saying that he could not submit the statement due to personal difficulties of his senior counsel.

Earlier on April 22, the Supreme Court had directed the defence and the state to submit the concise statements before it by May 20 and May 27 respectively. But none of them submit the statements timely.

A summary statement contains the points on which the counsels place argument before the apex court.

Earlier on November 2, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Quasem to death after it had found him guilty in 10 of the 14 war crime charges against him.

On November 30, Quasem submitted a 150-page appeal before the Supreme Court, seeking his acquittal of all the 10 charges on which he was found guilty. He also attached 1,600 pages of documents with the appeal.

In the petition, he mentioned 181 “reasons” why the apex court should consider acquitting him of all war crime charges.