The Supreme Court (SC) has given time to both the state and defence until March 31 for submitting concise statements on the appeal filed by convicted war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami seeking acquittal from death sentence. After hearing on a time petition of Nizami`s defence, the four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order on Tuesday. The SC bench also cleared that the hearing on the appeal will be started though they will fail to submit the concise statements within the time. Earlier on October 29, 2014, a three-member bench of ICT-1 led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim awarded death penalty to the Jamaat chief for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. On November 23, 2014, the defence lawyers of the war criminal appealed in the apex court challenging the verdict.
