The Supreme Court on Monday fixed September 17 for submitting the summary of appeal plea against the verdict of Jamaat leader Mohammed Kamaruzzaman, who was handed the death penalty for war crimes.
An Appellate Division Bench led by Chief Justice M Mozammel Hossain passed the order on Monday morning.
On June 6, defence counsels filed the appeal petition with the Supreme Court against the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) verdict that handed down capital punishment to the Jamaat leader.
Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers filed the appeal petition seeking his release and acquittal of the proved war time charges.
On May 9, a Dhaka tribunal handed capital punishment to Kamaruzzaman for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The three-member tribunal led by Justice Obaidul Hasan pronounced the verdict at about 1:50pm.
Two other fellow judges-- Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Judge M Shahinur Islam-- were also present during the pronouncement.
The tribunal said five out of seven charges pressed against Kamaruzzaman were proved beyond doubt.
He received death penalties in two cases - filed for killing 164 unarmed civilians and freedom fighter Golam Mostafa Talukder in Sherpur.
This was the third verdict of the second tribunal to be handed down for war crimes committed during 1971’s Liberation War.
On July 29, 2010, Kamaruzzaman was arrested in a case of hurting religious sentiment and was shown arrested in the war crimes case on October 2, 2010.
On June 4, 2012, the second tribunal of Justices ATM Fazle Kabir and Obaidul Hassan and Judge Shahinur Islam indicted Kamaruzzaman on seven counts including murder, torture, conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity in atrocities committed in 1971.
The prosecution presented 18 witnesses. The tribunal limited the number of defence witnesses to five after the defence lawyers submitted a list of 1,354 witnesses to testify for him.
The prosecution closed its arguments in the case from March 24 to March 31 while the defence did so from April 1 to April 15.
On April 16, after hearing of both prosecution and defence, the second tribunal reserved judgment.
