Azhar to appeal

Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam was not awarded a fair verdict and will file an appeal, his lawyer has said.

The first International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-1), headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim, sentenced the Jamaat assistant secretary general to death on Tuesday for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

“It would have been fair if the evidence the prosecution presented was tossed into the dustbin rather than ordering a death sentence on its basis,” Azhar’s lawyer Tajul Islam said in an immediate reaction after the verdict.

“I’ve had words with him (Azhar), he is not afraid of the death verdict. He said he will file an appeal.”

The court delivered the sentence after five of the six charges pressed by the prosecution were proven. The charges included rape, murder, genocide, arson, loot, and confinement.

He was the chief of Jamaat student front Islami Chhatra Sangha and led the Al-Badr in Rangpur.

Azhar to die