The Supreme Court today asked the defence to submit a concise statement before it by May 20 on an appeal filed by convicted war criminal Mir Quasem Ali against his death sentence.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, also asked the state counsels to submit their concise statement on the same appeal before the bench by May 27.

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

The Appellate Division passed the order as the appeal appeared in the cause list of the court for an order today.

Advocate Jaynal Abedin appeared for Quasem while Additional Attorney General Murad Reza represented the state.

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, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader mentioned 181 “reasons” why the apex court should consider acquitting him of all war crime charges.