Court Correspondent :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday decided to hear appeals of convicted war criminals Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam and former Jatiya Party State Minister Syed Mohammad Qaiser today (Sunday). The apex court kept the matters as second and third item on its cause list of today.
The Three-Member Bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will hear the appeals of Azhar and Qaiser.
On December 23, 2014, now defunct International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) sentenced Qaiser to death as 14 charges out of a total 16 framed against him were proved beyond all doubts.
The tribunal pronounced the death penalty on seven charges, life-term imprisonment for four charges, imprisonment of 10, 7 and 5 years on three charges and he was acquitted on two remaining charges, as those two were not proved.
The tribunal in its observation also directed the State to initiate a compensation scheme for the rape victims of 1971 and the war babies.
Mohammad Qaiser filed appeal against his conviction on January 19 in 2015. Meanwhile, the ICT-1 on December 30 in 2014, sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam to death for his crimes against humanity, he committed in Rangpur during the War of Liberation. Of the six charges, the tribunal found him guilty of five charges.
The court also declared that he should be hanged for Charges 2, 3 and 4. In the charge No. 2 he was accused of gunning down 15 unarmed innocent civilians in Dhap Para area of Rangpur on April 16, 1971. In Charge No. 3, he was accused of committing massacre at Jharuarbeel and killing more than 1200 unarmed civilians on April 17. And in Charge No. 4, he was accused of abduction and murder of four teachers of Carmichael College and others on April 30.
Besides, he was sentenced to a total of 30 years’ imprisonment on the charge Nos. 5 and 6 for raping women confining them at Rangpur Town Hall between March 25 and December 16 and torturing Shawkat Hossain and Rafiqul Hasan between mid November and December 1. Azharul Islam filed appeal against his conviction on January 28, 2015.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday decided to hear appeals of convicted war criminals Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam and former Jatiya Party State Minister Syed Mohammad Qaiser today (Sunday). The apex court kept the matters as second and third item on its cause list of today.
The Three-Member Bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will hear the appeals of Azhar and Qaiser.
On December 23, 2014, now defunct International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) sentenced Qaiser to death as 14 charges out of a total 16 framed against him were proved beyond all doubts.
The tribunal pronounced the death penalty on seven charges, life-term imprisonment for four charges, imprisonment of 10, 7 and 5 years on three charges and he was acquitted on two remaining charges, as those two were not proved.
The tribunal in its observation also directed the State to initiate a compensation scheme for the rape victims of 1971 and the war babies.
Mohammad Qaiser filed appeal against his conviction on January 19 in 2015. Meanwhile, the ICT-1 on December 30 in 2014, sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam to death for his crimes against humanity, he committed in Rangpur during the War of Liberation. Of the six charges, the tribunal found him guilty of five charges.
The court also declared that he should be hanged for Charges 2, 3 and 4. In the charge No. 2 he was accused of gunning down 15 unarmed innocent civilians in Dhap Para area of Rangpur on April 16, 1971. In Charge No. 3, he was accused of committing massacre at Jharuarbeel and killing more than 1200 unarmed civilians on April 17. And in Charge No. 4, he was accused of abduction and murder of four teachers of Carmichael College and others on April 30.
Besides, he was sentenced to a total of 30 years’ imprisonment on the charge Nos. 5 and 6 for raping women confining them at Rangpur Town Hall between March 25 and December 16 and torturing Shawkat Hossain and Rafiqul Hasan between mid November and December 1. Azharul Islam filed appeal against his conviction on January 28, 2015.
