Staff Reporter :The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday deferred the hearing on the review petition of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali till August 24. A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order upon apetition filed by Quasem Ali for time petition seeking a two-month deferment. Senior defence lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said, “We sought two months time to prepare for the hearing. The court granted our petition extending time till August 24.” Quasem Ali submitted the petition to the apex court on June 19, seeking review of its verdict that had upheld his death sentence for the crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971. In the petition, the Jamaat’s chief financier prayed to the SC to acquit him of all seven charges brought against him. The International Crimes Tribunal-2 awarded death sentence to Quasem Ali on November 2, 2014, the chief of Al-Badr in Chittagong during the War of Independence in 1971. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali on March 8. Barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem, submitted the review petition seeking the release of the convict in the war crimes cases citing 14 grounds of his acquittal. The death row convict Mir Quasem Ali was shifted to Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur prison in Gazipur on June 20.
