S M Mizanur Rahman :
Food Minister Quamrul Islam has demanded rehearing on the appeal filed by the condemned war criminal Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali excluding Chief Justice S K Sinha from the five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
“We have understood that what judgment will be pronounced regarding this appeal hearing following the Chief Justice’s open remarks on it in the court,” the Minister said while addressing a discussion at Bilia Auditorium in city’s Dhanmondi area on Saturday.
The Supreme Court (SC) will deliver its verdict on March 8 (Tuesday) on the appeal filed by condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali challenging the death penalty for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
After the closure of the appeal arguments, a five-member bench of the SC, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, first set March 2 for delivering the judgment but it later shifted the date to March 8 on account of absence of the Chief Justice who will then be out of the city on a tour.
Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee organised the discussion titled “Conspiracy Against the Trial of the Mass Killers in 1971: Duties of Government, Judiciary and Civil Society”
Apart from the Chief Justice, Quamrul Islam also demanded to exclude the Attorney General to run this case.
He said the Chief Justice’s statement has also proved that there is no scope to uphold the death penalty in the case.
“If the Appellate Division upholds the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali, it seems the government had created pressure for the verdict. If the Chief Justice and the Attorney General take part in the hearing, we will not get justice,” he said.
He said a new bench excluding the Chief Justice should be formed to rehear on the appeal.
“The Chief Justice is now echoing the allegations of Jamaat, their international lobbyists, BNP and even the Attorney General. And his (Chief Justice) question about the prosecution’s politics regarding the case may make judgment controversial,” the Food Minister said.
Meanwhile, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque requested the Chief Justice to withdraw his statement. “No one is above the law. Even the justice,” he said.
Earlier on February 9, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court started hearing an appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali challenging the verdict of a war crimes tribunal that awarded him to death sentence for wartime offences.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice S K Sinha began the hearing with Quasem’s lawyer S M Shahjahan reading out the charges.
The other judges of the bench are: Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, Justice Bazlur Rahman and Justice Mirza Hussain Haider.
On November 2, 2014, the then International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Mir Quasem Ali to death after it found him guilty on 10 charges of abduction, and confining and torturing people during the Liberation War in 1971.
Mir Quasem later filed an appeal with the SC challenging the tribunal’s verdict. A member of Jamaat-e-Islami Central Executive Council, Mir Quasem, in his appeal, cited 181 reasons for his acquittal on all charges.
So far, the apex court has handed down its verdicts against six war criminals in war crimes cases.
