Hours before the Supreme Court delivers its verdict on Jamaat-e-Islami financier Mir Quasem Ali’s petition to review his death penalty for war crimes, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam has spoken of his concerns.
“I am very much worried. Very much worried about today,” the top law officer of the state said in a programme on Monday.
The Jamaat Central Executive Council member is all but certain to hang if the top appeals court rejects his petition.
He will only have presidential pardon as the last option to escape the gallows. But the president has not accepted any petition until now from a war criminal to spare his life.
Of all the review petitions filed by war crimes convicts, the disposal of Mir Quasem’s has taken the longest time. He has got twice the time than the others had.
He has allegedly splashed out millions to dodge conviction for 1971 war-time atrocities. Attorney General Alam had submitted documents on his payment of $2.5 million to foreign lobbyists at the hearing.
Supreme Court lawyers recently demonstrated against a comment of Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha. The attorney general requested them not to take any step before Mir Quasem’s review verdict is judged.
When Alam addressed the Professionals’ Coordination Council’s programme on Monday to mark the National Mourning Day, his audience was mostly made up of lawyers.
He urged them to be present when the verdict will be announced on Tuesday. “Your presence itself will be a big protest,” he said. The attorney general, who has argued for the State in the Supreme Court in all the war crimes trials, did not enlarge on his concerns, though.
When bdnews24.com reached him later, he said, “As the concerned lawyer, it is only natural that I am worried.”
Mir Quasem’s review petition is the first on Tuesday’s business agenda to be dealt with by the Appellate Division bench of Chief Justice Sinha.
In the programme, the attorney general said, “We all will be happy if the verdict is upheld.”
The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Mir Quasem to death on Nov 2, 2014. The Appellate Division confirmed the verdict on Mar 8 this year.
