Mir Quasems review hearing adjourned
STAFF REPORTER
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday adjourned till August 28 the hearing on a review petition filed by war crimes convict and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali seeking reconsideration of his death penalty in war crimes cases.
A review of the sentence is the last ditch attempt for the war criminal to save himself from the gallows.
After rejecting a time petition filed by Mir Quasem Ali seeking three weeks time, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha held a brief hearing on the review petition and fixed Sunday for further hearing on the plea.
During yesterdays proceedings, Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain sought three weeks time from the apex court saying that he could not take preparation for moving the review petition before the apex court as counsel Barrister Mir Ahmmad Bin Quasem, son of Quasem Ali, has gone missing.
Your time plea is not acceptable and we cannot allow you more time on this ground. We have already granted your time plea once and allowed you one months time to take preparation for review hearing in the case, the chief justice told the defence counsel.
At one stage of hearing, the court said sorry to Khandaker Mahbub Hossain when he repeatedly sought times from the court in the case.
Mir Ahmmad Bin Quasem, who was an assistant lawyer in the case, had kept all the records and documents of the case in his custody even the paperbook of the case was also kept in his custody, Hossain said.
Then, the court replied that it would not go outside the verdict of the case. We will not allow you any time as we have already gave you extended time earlier rejecting the state prayer, the court added. Later, the defence counsel started the hearing on the review plea. After brief hearing on the petition, the apex court said that the matter will come up in the top of Sundays cause list of the Appellate Division.
On June 19, death-row convict Mir Quasem Ali filed the review petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of its verdict that had upheld his death penalty handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for committing crimes against humanity during the countrys War of Liberation in 1971.
In the 86-page petition, 14 grounds were mentioned based on which the SC may consider the review petition.
On June 6, the ICT issued a death warrant for the Jamaat-e-Islami leader hours after the Supreme Court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.
Earlier, on 8 March, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem for his crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.
The ICT-2 in a verdict had sentenced Mir Quasem Ali, Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971, to death on November 2, 2014. On November 30, 2014, Mir Quasem filed an appeal with the SC challenging the death penalty. Among the total 14 charges brought against Quasem, the tribunal convicted him on 10 counts of charges and acquitted him in four.
The 64-year-old top Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Mir Quasem, is considered by many as the main financier of Jamaat.
He allegedly paid $25 million to an American lobbyist firm to carry out a smear campaign to make the war crimes trial controversial, the then law minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament on April 28, 2013.
He was kept at Kashimpur jail in Gazipur since his arrest in 2013 and was shifted to Dhaka Central Jail from Gazipur on June 20.
