The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today postponed the hearing of an appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam, who is challenging his death sentence for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The new date for the hearing has been set for May 6.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, stated that the full bench of the court will take up the matter on that day.
The appeal was listed as item No. 28 in today’s cause list.
On February 27, the apex court granted Azharul permission to file a fresh appeal against his death sentence and scheduled April 22 (today) for the hearing. This came after the court reviewed a petition seeking reconsideration of its previous verdict that had upheld the International Crimes Tribunal’s (ICT) death sentence.
On Sunday, Azharul’s counsels, Ehsan A Siddiq and Mohammad Shishir Manir, urged the Appellate Division to proceed with the hearing on their client’s appeal today.
The Appellate Division had earlier upheld the death penalty on October 31, 2019. That verdict was delivered by a four-member bench led by the then Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, with the decision reached by majority opinion. The ICT-1 had convicted Azharul in 2014 for crimes committed in Rangpur during the war.
Previously, Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, Abdul Quader Mollah, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Mir Quasem Ali, and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury were executed following Supreme Court rulings for their involvement in crimes against humanity in 1971.
