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Published : 30 Aug 2016, 10:38 AM
During the 1971 Liberation War, Jamaat-e-Islami business baron Mir Quasem was the pro-Pakistan Al-Badr militia's third most important functionary after Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid.
“The whole nation and I are relieved over the verdict. I am satisfied,” Alam said in his immediate reaction after the chief justice-led appeals bench gave its decision on Tuesday morning.
On Nov 2, 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal had sentenced Mir Quasem, a member of the Jamaat's Central Executive Council, to death for two charges of war crimes.
He challenged the verdict but in March this year, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
In June, Mir Quasem filed the petition for a review of the top court's verdict.
The five-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha scrapped his petition Tuesday, leaving the Jamaat leader with only one last choice - seeking president's mercy by repenting for his crimes.
The government will execute the death sentence if he does not seek clemency or the president rejects his petition.
Regarding what comes next, Attorney General Alam said, "If Mir Quasem Ali seeks presidential clemency that it will be another matter to discuss. If not, he will be executed whenever the government wants."
The prosecution had levelled 14 charges of crimes against humanity against Mir Quasem, who pumped billions into the Jamaat-e-Islami since the mid-1980s to put it on a firm financial footing in Bangladesh.
He was given the death penalty for two charges – No. 11 and 12 – in which he was accused of killing eight persons including young freedom fighter Jashim Uddin Ahmed.
Following his appeal, the Appellate Division on Mar 8 upheld his death penalty on Charge No. 11, but acquitted him of Charge No. 12.
After Tuesday's verdict, the attorney general said, "If the prosecution had conducted the case efficiently, the death sentence for Charge No. 12 would have been upheld."
The apex court's dissatisfaction over the inefficiency of the prosecution and investigation panel during the appeal and review hearings had created ripples.
Chief Justice Sinha on Sunday during the hearing also observed that the chief prosecutor and prosecutors he assigned to Mir Quasem's trial do not 'deserve to be where they are'.
However, in his immediate reaction after the review verdict, ICT's Chief Prosecutor Golam Arieff Tipoo told reporters, "The judgment has reflected the wishes of the people. The expected verdict has been pronounced. We are happy."
Another prosecutor Tureen Afroz said, "We got justice. The truth is like the sun, constant."
Mir Quasem, the wartime terror of Chittagong, rapidly rose through the ranks to change his own and the Jamaat's financial and political fortunes with extraordinary shrewdness and went on to bankroll party schemes.
The 63-year-old war criminal is in a condemned cell at Gazipur's Kashimpur prison.
Mir Quasem is the sixth war criminal to see the verdict at its execution level. He is the fifth top Jamaat leader whose death sentence for war crimes has been upheld in the final verdict.
