War crimes convict Motiur Rahman Nizami appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against a verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal that sentenced the Jamaat chief to death.
Nizami’s lawyer Tajul Islam filed the petition yesterday seeking acquittal from all war crimes charges.
In the 121-page petition, the defence sought to argue on 168 points. They also submitted 6252 pages documents regarding the case.
After filing the petition Tajul informed reporters. He also said: “The verdict by the tribunal against Motiur Rahman Nizami was not given in a proper way. We expect that the top court will acquit him.”
On October 29, Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death by International Crimes Tribunal-1 on four charges of war crimes, which include the killings of intellectuals.
The 71-year-old was also awarded life sentence in four other charges as the ICT-1 found him guilty in total eight out of 16 charges levelled against him.
The trial against Nizami began on May 28, 2012.
He was arrested on July 29, 2010 for hurting religious sentiments. After three days, he was shown arrested in a war crimes case. The prosecution on December 11, 2012 brought specific charges against him.
As per prosecution documents, Nizami was born in 1943 at Mohammadpur village of Pabna’s Santhia upazila.
As the head of East-Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha, then student wing of Jamaat, he led the al-Badr militia – a vigilante group blamed for systematic abduction and execution of intellectuals.
He was one of the alleged war criminals arrested in the very beginning of the war crimes trials in 2010.