Staff Reporter :The defence lawyers of Death-row war criminal Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid’s has not raised any point regarding the charges for which the Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general has been sentenced to life in prison during the hearing of his review petition.At the hearing of the review petition before the Appellate Division of the High Court on Tuesday, Mujahid’s lawyers only presented arguments against the charge for which the Al-Badr commander has been sentenced to death. “At least his neck will be saved,” was the response of his main counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain to The New Nation replying to query on the matter.The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced Mujahid to death on three charges of crimes committed against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence on the charge of plotting the murders of intellectuals. His death sentence on another charge was commuted to life term imprisonment. He was acquitted of one other charge.A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha heard Mujahid’s plea for a review of the appeals on the verdict on Tuesday.It is set to issue the verdict on Wednesday. Asked what his expectations were of the verdict, Mujahid’s counsel Hossain said, “We expect an acquittal of the accused whenever we file any case.””But here, we did not go against all the charges. He was sentenced to life on another change and to five years in jail on another. We don’t have anything to say on these,” Hossain said.”We have something to say against only one charge – for which he got the death penalty. We’ve argued that it was unlawful to sentence him to death in line with the witnesses’ depositions and evidence,” he added.The review is the last stage of the legal battle. The only other option to evade the death sentence is through seeking presidential clemency, if the death penalty is not changed in review. It is clear from Mujahid’s chief lawyer’s comments that the defence team has no worries about his life term imprisonment or any other penalty.When The New Nation spoke to him about the matter, Hossain again said, “We have sought review of only one charge.””The scope is very limited in a review. For that reason, we’ve said that the penalty for charge No. 6 is ‘not in accordance with law’; this penalty cannot be given under the corresponding section in line with the witnesses’ depositions and the evidences presented during the trial,” he said.About the other charges, he said, “We are not challenging the others.” “And the Appellate Division decisions on the others are ‘in accordance with law’. We can’t say that the penalties were not in line with the law,” he added.After the hearing, Hossain told reporters that Mujahid had not been named in the 42 cases filed earlier over the murders of intellectuals. He also claimed the investigators did not find Mujahid’s name in any list of Al-Badr force.”We’ve shown that the Al-Badr command was army command. We have shown it from an interview of Mr Niazi (Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi of the Pakistan Army) published in a book of Muntassir Mamoon. Mr Niazi said Al-Badr and Al-Shams were under direct army command,” he said.Hossain claimed the charge for which Mujahid was sentenced to death was not specific.”In other cases, there were specific charges against the accused persons – like the accused carried out the murder at some specific place and tortured specific people. But the charge against Mr Mujahid is not specific,” he said.”The charge was…the killings of intellectuals…as he was the secretary of Islami Chhatra Sangha, he will have to take the responsibility for these (killings) – what is known as superior command.”We have argued that the Al-Badr force was directly under the army, under Niazi,” Hossain said.However, the hearing of review petition of another Death-row war criminal, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury has been fixed to be held on today (Wednesday).
