Govt appeals for Jabbar’s death penalty

Abdul Jabbar. Star file photo

The government today appealed to the Supreme Court seeking death penalty for convicted war criminal Abdul Jabbar.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 24 sentenced Jabbar to imprisonment till death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

The attorney general's office submitted the 379-page appeal to the Appellate Division, challenging the "inadequate sentence" given by ICT-1 to Jabbar.

Citing from the appeal, Assistant Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told The Daily Star that the first option of punishment for a war criminal is death sentence, which the ICT-1 did not follow though the war crime charges against Jabbar had been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Ten reasons have been cited in the appeal for which the SC may consider to sentence Jabbar to death, he said.