Verdict on war criminal Mir Quasem’s review petition on Tuesday

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will pronounce its verdict on war crimes convict and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali’s petition seeking review of his death sentence.

Court CorrespondentSupreme bdnews24.com
Published : 28 August 2016, 07:01 AM
Updated : 30 August 2016, 05:16 AM

A five-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date nearly two hours after the hearing resumed at 9:30amon Sunday.
 
The other members of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mohammad Bazlur Rahman.
 
An Al-Badr commander in 1971, death-row convict Mir Quasem is currently now in Kashimpur prison in Gazipur.
 
A review of the sentence is his last ditch attempt to save himself from the gallows. Once it is resolved and if the death sentence is upheld, the war criminal will have the opportunity to seek presidential clemency.
 
If the 63-year-old Jamaat leader does not seek mercy or is denied pardon, the government will order the jail authorities to hang him.
 
Mir Quasem was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) and was sentenced to death in 2014.
 
He challenged the verdict but in March this year, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
 
On Jun 6, the apex court released the full verdict and sent it to the ICT, which then issued the death warrant before forwarding it to the jail authorities.
 
Mir Quasem then filed a petition on Jun 19 for a review of the top court's verdict.
 
The State then moved the Supreme Court’s chamber judge to expedite the hearings, and its plea was forwarded to the appeals bench, upon which the court scheduled a hearing for Jul 25.
 
But it was deferred by a month to Aug 24 after the defence sought time.
 
On Wednesday morning, the court had adjourned the hearing until Sunday just after chief defence counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain started his opening statement.
 
Hossain on Wednesday had prayed for a month to prepare for the review hearing, but the court rejected his plea.
 
On Sunday morning, he finished his statement. Later, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam made his statement in court.
 
After that, around 12:30pm, the court set Aug 30 (Tuesday) to deliver the verdict.
 
Mir Quasem in the 86-page review petition has specified 14 argument to back his request for acquittal. His counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain has said that they ‘hope to get justice’ in the verdict.
 
On the other hand, mentioning past instances, the attorney general said the chances of the court changing the death sentence on a review petition was ‘very slim’.
 
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 media tycoon pumped billions into the Jamaat since the mid-1980s to put it on a firm financial footing in Bangladesh.
 
Police had arrested him on Jun 17, 2012, at the 'Naya Diganta' newspaper offices less than two hours after a warrant was out for him. His war crimes trial started on Sep 5 next year.
 
The ICT had ordered Mir Quasem be hanged until death for two charges, after finding him unanimously guilty of killing young freedom fighter Jashim Uddin Ahmed along with five others .
 
He was also found guilty by majority for the murders of Ranjit Das and Tuntun Sen.
 
Mir Quasem was given total 72 years in prison on eight other charges.
 
Before him, the death-row war criminals who had filed review petition and failed to overturn the sentence include Jamaat top leaders Nizami, Mujahid, Md Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhuyr.
 
All of them were executed after the apex court scrapped their petitions.
 
The ICT verdict had cited the crimes against humanity Mir Quasem 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 war.
 
Mir Quasem, founding president of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, has been member of the Jammat's Central Executive Council and the organisation’s fifth most important leader.
 
The ICT in the verdict had described Dalim Hotel in Chittagong, where pro-liberation people were tortured and killed under his leadership, as the ‘death factory'.
 
It had observed that Al-Badr members and Pakistani troops would take freedom fighters to Dalim Hotel to torture them until they were dead.
 
Apart from Dalim Hotel, the Al-Badr, under Mir Quasem’s leadership, had set up camps for torture and killings at Dowsta Mohammad Panjabee Building - a leather depot at Asadganj, Dewan Hotel in Dewanhat area and Salma Manjil at Panchlaish.​​