Mir Qashem Ali�s appeal
Govt told to submit concise statement in two weeks
Nizami files application seeking 2 weeks� time
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday directed the government to submit a concise statement in two weeks on war crimes convict and Jamaat leader Mir Qashem Alis appeal against his death sentence.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the order in response to an application filed by attorney general Mahbubey Alam, seeking two weeks time for submitting the statement on the appeal.
A concise statement contains the points on which the counsel will place their arguments on behalf of their clients on the appeal before the apex court. Advocate Shishir Manir, one of the counsel for Mir Qashem Ali, told reporters that they have already submitted their concise statement to the apex court.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Qashem Ali to death on November 2last year, after finding him guilty in 10 out of the 14 war crime charges brought against him. On November 30, Qashem Ali filed an appeal with the SC challenging the ICT verdict, and sought acquittal.
Again, advocate Shishir Manir, who is also the counsel for another Jamaat leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, filed an application with the Supreme Court seeking an adjournment of the hearing on Motiur Rahman Nizamis appeal against the death penalty awarded by the tribunal to him for wartime offences.
The four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, has listed the matter as item no. 5 in the cause-list for the hearing. The three other judges of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, according to the Supreme Court website.
On October 29 last year, the ICT-1 found the 71-year-old Nizami guilty of eight of the 16 war crimes charges brought against him, and handed down the death penalty on four charges and lifetime imprisonment on the other four. The ICT-1 acquitted Nizami of eight other charges, as the prosecution failed to prove them.
Nizami, who has also been sentenced to death in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case, filed an appeal before the Supreme Court on November 23 last year challenging the ICT-1 verdict. The appeal, containing 6,252 pages, cited 168 reasons for him to be discharged of the war crimes charges.
On January 30 this year, a Chittagong court also sentenced him to death in the 10-truck arms haul case. His appeal in the case is yet to be disposed of by the High Court. Nizami, now 71, is detained at the Kashimpur high security jail in Gazipur.
