The top court yesterday fixed Sunday to begin hearing on the war crimes appeal registered by death row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, an assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court passed the order though the defence had urged the apex court to commence the hearing in July.
Earlier, the defence filed concise statement (documents containing facts and arguments they will rely upon) of the appeal.
The al-Badr leader was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal 2 on May 9 last year. Kamaruzzaman appealed against the judgement on June 6.
The bench has so far disposed of two appeals cases including the one of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla, who was hanged on December 12 last year. The court on April 16 kept the verdict in death row convict Delawar Hossain Sayedee appeals case pending for verdict.
After the end of Kamaruzzaman’s case, the court will start hearing in the appeals case of Jamaat guru Ghulam Azam – the mastermind of collaborators – who was sentenced to 90 years’ imprisonment for committing war crimes.
Five out of seven charges pressed against Kamaruzzaman were proved at the tribunal. He was awarded death sentence in two charges – for killing 164 unarmed civilians and freedom fighter Golam Mostafa Talukder in Sherpur as he had incurred “superior responsibility” for leading al-Badr, a body formed by Jamaat’s then student body Islami Chhatra Sangha, in Mymensingh and Sherpur in 1971.
Kamaruzzaman was also given life imprisonment on two charges while he received 10 years’ jail on another charge of torturing a teacher.
