War crimes convict Mujahid will file petition seeking review of verdict

Death-row war crimes convict Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid will file a review petition over his death verdict upheld by the top appeals court.

Lawyers representing the Jamaat-e-Islami leader met him in the Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday.
 
“He has instructed us to file a review petition," his lawyer Shishir Monir told reporters at the prison gate after a 30-minute meeting with Mujahid.
 
The Supreme Court on Wednesday published the full verdict on the appeals that challenged the capital punishment of BNP Standing Committee Member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mujahid.
 
They were then sent to the International Crimes Tribunal same day.
 
The tribunal on Thursday issued the death warrants for the two war criminals and sent them to the prison authorities.
 
The warrants were then read out to Chowdhury and Mujahid setting the process for the execution of the two in motion.
 
Both are guilty of crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.
 
Mujahid, the social welfare minister in Khaleda Zia’s BNP-Jamaat coalition Cabinet, planned and executed mass murders including those of intellectuals, scientists, academics and journalists in 1971.
 
The war crimes tribunal on Jul 17, 2013, ordered him to walk the gallows for the massacre of the intellectuals and involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus during the war.
 
Out of the seven charges levelled against him, the tribunal had found him guilty on five counts. He was given the death penalty in the first, sixth and seventh charges.

After he moved the Appellate Division against the verdict, the apex court on Jun 16 gave its verdict on Jamaat leader Mujahid, who was the former commander of Al-Badr, upholding the death penalty.

He now has the option to file a petition for review of the verdict within 15 days, starting from Thursday.
 
He will not be executed before the resolution of the review petition, if filed.
 
Once the review petitions are resolved and if the death sentences are upheld, the war crimes convict can seek mercy from the president and meet family members.
 
If they are denied pardon or if they decline to appeal, the government will execute the convict in jail.