Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, the former Al-Badr chief sentenced to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, has appealed for acquittal in the Supreme Court.
Published : 23 Nov 2014, 01:47 PM
His counsel Jaynal Abedeen filed the appeal on Friday.
The war crimes convict’s other lawyer Md Shishir Monir told bdnews24.com they had submitted a 6,252-page document with the 121-page appeal application.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the death verdict awarded to him by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Oct 29 had satisfied the prosecution and the state will argue against his appeal.
“The court was convinced that justice will fail if he was not given the maximum penalty for the number of killings and genocide he committed.”
The Ameer-e-Jamaat was found guilty of heading the notorious vigilante militia, Al-Badr, as the head of Jamaat’s erstwhile student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971.
He was found to have been involved in the planning of mass-killing, murders, rapes and loot in different villages in Pabna as well as mounting ‘Gestapo-style attacks’ on pro-liberation Bengali intellectuals days before Bangladesh was to win victory in the war against Pakistan.
Eight out of the 16 war crimes charges levelled against him had been proven and Nizami was handed death for four charges, life terms for four others and acquitted in the rest.
The 71-year old was already carrying a death sentence in the infamous Chittagong 10-truck arms haul case.
He served as the Minister for Agriculture until 2003 and thereafter as Minister for Industries until 2006 when Jamaat was in power in coalition with the BNP.