Lawyers to meet Mojaheed tomorrow

Five lawyers will meet convicted war criminal Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed at Dhaka central jail tomorrow morning for instructions about seeking a review to the Supreme Court verdict upholding his death penalty.

The lawyers are -- Shishir Manir, Moshiul Alam, Kamal Uddin, Najibur Rahman and Matiur Rahman Akand. 

Shishir Manir told The Daily Star that they will meet the Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general for the first time after the SC delivered its verdict on him in the case filed for crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War 1971.

He also said they will seek necessary instructions from Mojaheed about filing a review petition with the SC against its verdict, considering situation at the jail.

On June 16, the Appellate Division of the SC unanimously upheld the death penalty of the Jamaat leader for planning and instigating the killing of intellectuals and professionals at the fag end of the Liberation War.

The SC verdict has paved the way for execution of Mojaheed, also a former minister.

During the war, Mojaheed was chief of infamous Al-Badr Bahini, one of the Pakistan 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.

The apex court also upheld his life sentence, originally handed by a war crimes tribunal, for killing composer Altaf Mahmud, Jahir Uddin Jalal, Badi, Rumi (son of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam), Jewel and Azad at the Old MP Hostel at Nakhalpara in Dhaka and his five years’ jail term for confining and torturing Ranjit Nath, a civilian, at a Bihari camp in Faridpur.

Mojaheed can now file for a review petition and if rejected, seek presidential clemency as a last option to save his life