The apex court may need five more working days to complete hearing the appeal of death-row convict Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami filed seeking acquittal.
The four-member Appellate Division bench will start hearing defence arguments on November 30, December 1 and 2. The state will place their arguments on December 7 while the defence will place rebuttal on December 8.
The dates were fixed by the bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday after the court concluded the sixth day’s hearing on the appeal.
On the day, Nizami’s lawyer Shahjahan Khan read out the statements of the investigation officer and four defence witnesses, recorded by the International Crimes Tribunal, from the paper book. He was assisted by Shishir Manir.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and his deputy Md Momtaz Uddin Fakir represented the state. The hearing began at 9:15am and continued until 1:15pm with a half an hour break.
One of the lawyers present at the courtroom told the Dhaka Tribune that after completing the hearing on December 8, the court might fix the date of delivering its judgement on the appeal.
The Appellate Division began the hearing on September 9 this year. The tribunal sentenced the Jamaat-e-Islami chief to death on October 29 last year on four charges of war crimes including the killing of intellectuals by al-Badr force in Dhaka.
Nizami was also sentenced to death in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case.
The top court bench has so far disposed of five war crimes appeal cases. It deals with one case at a time.