UNB, Dhaka: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday started hearing the appeal filed by condemned convict Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami challenging the death penalty handed down to him for his war crimes. Earlier in the day, the apex court rejected a time petition filed by the Jamaat leader. A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, began the hearing in the morning. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state while Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Joynal Abedin Tuhin moved for the defence. Earlier on October 29 last year, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 condemned Nizami to death for crimes against humanity, including genocide and the murder of intellectuals, during the Liberation War in 1971. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the I971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate -e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit. The three-member tribunal also sentenced Nizami, a former cabinet member during the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s rule (2001-06), to life term imprisonment each on four other war crime charges. It, however, acquitted the incumbent boss of Jamaat-e-Islami of the eight other charges of crimes against humanity in 1971 as the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. On November 23 last year, Nizami filed an appeal challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges. Apart, Nizami was condemned to death in January this year in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case in Chittagong in 2004.
