The apex court of the country is all set to deliver its judgement on the appeal case filed by top war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami, also chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, challenging his death penalty on January 6.
The judgement announcement by the four member Appellate Division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha has been kept in number one of the cause list at the SC's website.
The same court had set the date on December 8 after concluding hearing on the appeal by the war criminal.
On the closing day of arguments that day, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam prayed to the court to uphold Nizami’s death penalty as he had instigated and abetted al-Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani Army, to exterminate the country’s intellectuals and many other freedom fighters during the 1971 Liberation War.
On the other side, Nizami’s chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain prayed to the court to acquit his client from the charges. He, however, prayed to the court to commute the 75-year-old Jamaat leader’s death sentence to life imprisonment if it found him guilty of his wartime offence.
According to the case, Nizami headed al-Badr force during the war. Its members were recruited from Jamaat’s erstwhile student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha. Nizami had led the force as the then head of the Chhatra Sangha.
He was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal on October 29, 2014. Eight of the 16 charges were proven by the prosecution. The tribunal handed him down death penalty on four charges and life imprisonment on the four others.
The charges include leading the execution of intellectuals, mass killing, rape and loot in Dhaka and Pabna.
