The Supreme Court has asked for the summary of the appeal filed against the war crimes tribunal verdict on former BNP minister Abdul Alim. The five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain on Tuesday asked counsels to submit the summary by Mar 11. Abdul Alim had filed an appeal against the International Crime Tribunal’s verdict on Nov 7. His lawyer Tajul Islam told the media at that time : “He had been accused on 17 counts. The tribunal handed down the punishment as nine of the allegations had been proved. We have 120 reasons to argue why Alim should be acquitted”. “We have made it clear in the appeal that the grounds for Alim’s punishment are weak,” Islam said. He claimed that Alim had no link with the ‘Peace Committee’, as, according to him, Alim was in hiding in his village home during the entire duration of the war. On Oct 9, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal -2 had sentenced Alim for life for committing large-scale atrocities with Razakars in Joypurhat to crush the freedom struggle. The tribunal said that Alim’s conviction calls for capital punishment but the judgment takes into account his health and age and has therefore given him life sentence to be kept in prison until he dies naturally. Once a Muslim League leader who went on to serve Ziaur Rahman as a minister, Alim is the second BNP leader to be convicted and the third former minister to be found guilty of crimes during the 1971 Liberation War. – bdnews24.com
