The Supreme Court (SC) will deliver its verdict tomorrow on a review petition filed by war crimes convict and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali, seeking review of his death penalty. After concluding the hearing on the review plea from both sides, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, fixed August 30 for the final verdict on the review petition. A review of the sentence is the last legal battle for Mir Quasem. If the apex court does not change its earlier decision, the only option left before the Jamaat leader would be to seek presidential clemency. During yesterday’s hearing, advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, chief defence counsel of the case, pleaded before the court to record testimonies of a couple of new witnesses and accept new documents against Charge No. 11, for which the apex court upheld Mir Quasem’s death sentence. However, the apex court said the defence did not have any scope to produce new witnesses and documents at this stage of the proceedings. Hossain then started arguing on different points and tried to prove that this Mir Quasem was not the one who ran the torture cells in Chittagong. He was in Dhaka at that time, Hossain said. He also told the court that there was no direct evidence of Mir Quasem’s involvement in killing young freedom fighter Jasim. Hossain said the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations against Mir Quasem. Finally, he urged the court to commute Mir Quasem’s death penalty in the case. Opposing his submission, attorney general (AG) Mahbubey Alam said the involvement of Mir Quasem in all the crimes had been proved as he was the commander at Dalim Hotel. At one stage of the hearing, the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction that action has not been taken against the prosecutors who failed to conduct the war crimes cases properly.
Earlier, on February 23, the apex court expressed discontent over the poor performance of prosecutors in the Mir Quasem case, observing that the prosecution could not produce relevant witnesses in a number of charges brought against Mir Quasem.
The apex court opined that the prosecutors should not stay in their positions as they had failed to perform their duties. The apex court, however, said it did not know what steps the government had taken against the prosecutors.
Alam told the court that it (the court) would have passed its sentence in Charge no. 12, which was brought against Mir Quasem. But the court did not sentence him in connection with the charge due to the incompetence of the prosecutors, he added. The Chief Justice told the AG: “.....you (government) are making a mockery in carrying out the trial. Why aren’t you appointing good prosecutors?  What’s your problem in giving money?”
The AG replied: “I don’t know why those prosecutors were engaged in the case.”
Later, the AG told mediapersons that those who had conducted the trial proceedings as prosecutors against Mir Quasem should not stay in the prosecution team. According to the case document, the chief prosecutor is Ghulam Arif Tipo. The names of other prosecutors are Rana Das Gupta, Jihad Al Malum, Sultan Mahmud Simon, Turin Afroz, Rezia Sultana Begum and Taposh Kanti Das. On Wednesday, the SC began hearing the review petition filed by Mir Quasem on June 19. In the 86-page petition, 14 grounds were mentioned on the basis of which the top court may consider the review petition.