The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of former Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general ATM Azharul Islam awarded to him for his crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
Azhar was the president of the then Jamaat student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha and commander of the notorious Al-Badr militia in Rangpur district during the 1971 war, when he led the genocide of over 1,400 people, rape of many women, abduction and torture.
A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, sealed Azhar’s fate by handing down the verdict yesterday — on a majority basis (3:1) — after hearing his appeal.
The three other bench members were Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Justice Zinat Ara, and Justice Md Nuruzzaman.
This is the eighth such case to reach the final verdict, after the war crimes trials started back in 2010.
After the full appeals verdict is published, Azhar will be able to file a review petition within 15 days. But the scope of such petition is not equal to that of an appeal, according to the Supreme Court.
If the appeals verdict does not change after the review petition hearing, the Jamaat leader will then have the option to seek the presidential mercy. The government will move to execute the death sentence if he is denied clemency.
On December 30, 2014, International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 1 had sentenced Azhar in the war crimes case, after finding him guilty in five of the six charges levelled against him.
On Thursday, the top court on majority decision basis upheld the death sentence handed down to Azhar by ICT on three charges involving murder and genocide and the five-year prison sentence on different charges of abduction and torture.
But it also acquitted Azhar of the charges of helping the Pakistani military to detain, rape and physically torture many women in Rangpur town, for which he was sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment.
In his immediate reaction, Azhar’s Lawyer Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said they would file a review petition once the full verdict was published.
He also expressed hope that the review petition hearing would lead to the scrapping of the death sentence.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who represented the state, expressed satisfaction, saying said all three charges against Azhar and his death penalty awarded based on those charges remained intact.
ICT Prosecutor Sultan Mahmud said they were happy with the appeals verdict. “Justice has been served again.”
Azhar, who was arrested from his Moghbazar home in Dhaka in 2012 on war crimes charges, had filed the appeal against his death sentence on January 28, 2015.
On June 18, the Appellate Division started hearing arguments on the appeal from both the state and the defence.
The court completed the hearing and deferred the matter as a Case Awaiting Verdict (CAV) on July 10.
