Supreme Court to hear Jamaat financier Mir Quasem’s petition to review death penalty Monday

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hear on Monday death-row war criminal Mir Quasem Ali’s petition for a review. 

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 July 2016, 01:11 PM
Updated : 25 July 2016, 06:41 AM

The Jamaat-e-Islami financier’s petition is the 63rd case on the cause list, or the day’s business agenda, of the bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, according to the top court’s website.
 
The four-strong bench will also hear a petition for adjournment along with the review petition.
 
The other members of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice Mirza Hussain Haider.
 
About the petition seeking adjournment, Mir Quasem’s son Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem told bdnews24.com that the defence had filed the petition seeking two months for preparation.
 
“The Appellate Division verdict said the order to frame the charges in this case was faulty,” he said.

The International Crimes Tribunal verdict cited the crimes against humanity Quasem had committed as the Chittagong area commander of the Al-Badr, a militia formed with members of the Islami Chhatra Sangha to help the Pakistan Army during the 1971 war.
 
The founding president of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, he has been member of the Jamaat's Central Executive Council and the organisation’s fifth most important leader.
 
Mir Quasem was found guilty by the ICT and given death penalty in 2014 for the killing of young freedom fighter Jashim Uddin Ahmed and eight others.
 
He challenged the verdict but in March this year, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
 
On June 19, he filed a petition for a review of the top court's verdict.
 
Kept at the Kashimpur prison in Gazipur since his arrest in 2012, he had later been transferred to the Dhaka Central Jail.
 
Once the matter of review is resolved and if the death sentence is upheld, the war crimes convict will have the opportunity to seek presidential clemency.
 
If the Jamaat leader is denied pardon, the government 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.