Supreme Court sets Jan 14 to hear Mujaheed's appeal

Bangladesh's top appeal judges will begin hearing out Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed on Jan 14 after he appealed against his death sentence for 1971 war crimes.

The five-member Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain has fixed the date on Wednesday.

The other four members of the bench are Justices Surendra Kumar Sinha, Md. Abdul Wahhab Miah, Hasan Foez Siddique and AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury.

The case was on the top of the Appellate Division’s business agenda for the day.

The same bench had heard the appeal of Delwar Hossain Sayedee, whose death sentence was revised to life in prison.

Former Al-Badr commander Mujaheed moved the Appellate Division on Aug 11, 2013 challenging the verdict which ruled him to be ‘hanged by the neck’ for unleashing his ruthless militia on unarmed intellectuals and for mass murders he planned and executed during the 1971 Liberation War.

As per serial, hearing on his appeal was supposed to be held after those of two other war crimes convicts -- former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and BNP leader Abdul Alim.

But his case has moved forward after death of the two.

The International Crimes Tribunal -2 sentenced Mujaheed to death on July 17 after finding him guilty of five of the seven charges levelled against him.