The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday deferred the hearing for a week on the review petition of condemned war criminal Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami against its verdict upholding the International Crimes Tribunal’s judgment that had sentenced him to death. A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the order when Nizami’s lawyer SM Shahjahan submitted a petition seeking six weeks time. The hearing will be held in the next week, the court said in its order. Nizami’s counsels on Sunday filed the petition seeking six weeks’ time for hearing on the review plea. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state while Barrister Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Barrister Najib Momen moved for Nizami. The matter was included in the Supreme Court’s cause list for Sunday. Earlier on March 30, the prosecution filed an appeal with the Appellate Division for a quick hearing on the review petition of Nizami. The prosecution filed the appeal with Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Mirza Hossain Haider who later sent it to the regular bench of the division, fixing April 3 for the hearing. Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul, who argued for the state during the hearing at the Chamber Judge’s court, told reporters that they have appealed for a quick hearing on condemned war criminal Nizami’s appeal and the Chamber Judge has sent it to the regular bench of the division for hearing. On March 29, Barrister Najib Momen, son of Nizami, submitted a 70-page review petition with the Appellate Division. The review petition mentioned 46 grounds seeking release of the convict in the war crimes case, Barrister Najib told reporters. On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty. On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat Ameer for his crimes against humanity during the war. The Supreme Court upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals. On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit. Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges. — Dhaka, Apr 3 (UNB)
