War crimes convict Ghulam Azam's appeal hearing starts on Dec 2

Hearing the appeal against the Jamaat-e-Islami supremo Ghulam Azam's war crimes verdict will begin on Dec 2.

The five-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain has fixed the date for Wednesday.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) had found him guilty of five categories of criminal activity -- conspiracy, planning, incitement, complicity (abetment) and murder.

The tribunal's verdict on July 15 last year sentenced him to 90 years in prison and said that the Jamaat guru would "die in jail".

“Ghulam Azam in effect took part in the killing by giving instructions to his sub-ordinates,” the court had said then. “That’s why he is 'criminally liable' and found guilty.”

On Aug 5, 2013, Azam's counsels filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the verdict demanding his acquittal.

A week later on Aug 12, the state also filed an appeal pleading for the maximum punishment -- death penalty -- for the Jamaat leader.

Azam was represented by Khandaker Mahbub Hossain on Wednesday while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the state.

Ghulam Azam was among the key people who pioneered anti-Liberation efforts in 1971 colluding with the Pakistani military junta of that time.

He is widely perceived to have been among the core group of right-wing backers of the Pakistani Army, who came out strongly in support of a united Pakistan and mobilised infamous militias centrally.

He was instrumental in setting up the infamous Peace Committee at the national level. The Razakars, an auxiliary force set up mainly to actively thwart the liberation forces, are said to have been mobilised through the Peace Committees across Bangladesh.

Among the most notorious vigilante militia set up by him was the Al Badr, whose membership is said to have been mainly dominated by the Jamaat's student wing called the Islami Chhatra Sangha at that time. The current chief of Jamaat, Matiur Rahman Nizami, is in custody and facing charges as the key organiser of Al Badr.

The Al Badr is widely known to have spearheaded execution of the intellectual elites of Bangladesh just days before the victory on Dec 16, 1971.

Azam also spoke in favour of Pakistan to the Middle Eastern countries during the war, according to the prosecution.

He fled the country sensing a lost war, stayed in London for seven years and after the assassination of founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, he returned to Bangladesh in 1978 during BNP founder Ziaur Rahman's rule. Having led Jamaat from the front for long, Azam retired from active politics in 1999.

His party remains a key ally of the main opposition BNP. Two Jamaat leaders, both behind bars-- one convicted for war crimes and the other is pending verdict--have even served as ministers during the BNP's last tenure in government between 2001 and 2006, when Azam's party was part of the ruling coalition.