The appeals filed by former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam and the government challenging the verdict in the war crimes case against him will become moot as he has died.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will make the announcement on December 2, the first day of appeal hearing.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday there was no rule to proceed with someone’s trial after his death and the appeals in Ghulam Azam’s case would become moot now.
On October 22, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain said hearing on the appeals would be held on December 2. Ghulam, however, died at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University the following day.
On July 15 last year, the International Crimes Tribunal 1 sentenced Ghulam to 90 years in prison for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
On August 5, the convict appealed with the Supreme Court against the verdict seeking acquittal while the government filed another appeal on August 12 for awarding him the death penalty and to impose a ban on Jamaat.
He was found guilty of five counts of conspiracy, three counts of planning, 28 counts of incitement, 22 counts of complicity and one count of murder and torture.
Ghulam was charged with crimes against humanity for killing 38 people, including Mohammadpur police station’s then second officer sub-inspector Shiru Miah, his son Anwar Kamal, and a Bangla student at Dhaka University named Nazrul Islam, who was detained by Razakars on October 27, 1971.
They were travelling to India to take shelter but were killed by Razakars after being instructed by Ghulam at Kairatala village of Kasba upazila in Brahmanbaria on November 21, 1971.
