Hearing on death-row war criminal Mir Quasem Ali’s review petition on July 25

The Supreme Court will hear war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali’s review petition against his death sentence on July 25.

The chamber judge fixed the date on Tuesday following the State’s plea to expedite the hearing.

The former Al-Badr commander was found guilty by the International Crimes Tribunal and was awarded death penalty in 2014.

He challenged the verdict but in March this year, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.

On Jun 6, the top court released the full verdict and sent it to the International Crimes Tribunal, which then issued the death warrant before forwarding it to the jail authorities.

On Sunday, he filed a petition for a review of the top court's verdict.

Mir Quasem, who had been kept at the Kashimpur prison in Gazipur since his arrest in 2012, has been transferred to the Dhaka Central Jail on Monday.

The attorney general’s office filed a petition with the Supreme Court’s chamber judge on Tuesday to expedite the hearing.

“The judge forwarded the matter to a regular appeals bench and fixed July 25 for the hearing,” Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul told bdnews24.com.

Once it’s resolved and if the death sentence is upheld, the war crimes convict will have the opportunity to seek a presidential clemency.

If the Jamaat leader is denied pardon, the government then will order the jail authorities to hang him.

Mir Quasem was the Al-Badr’s third most important functionary after Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.

Bangladesh has executed both Nizami and Mujahid for 1971 war crimes.

Mir Quasem, a terror during 1971 in Chittagong, has proved to be a shrewd businessman and politician.

The 63-year old media tycoon pumped billions into the Jamaat since the mid-1980s to put it on a firm financial footing in Bangladesh.

Police arrested him on Jun 17, 2012 from the 'Naya Diganta' newspaper office less than two hours after a warrant was out for him.