Staff Reporter :The Supreme Court (SC) has fixed January 6 for delivering verdict on the appeal filed by the convicted war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami challenging his death penalty.A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date after hearing on the appeal on Tuesday.The prosecution ended its arguments in the morning on the appeal.During the hearing, Attorney General (AG) Mahbubey Alam argued in the court in favour of upholding the death penalty of Nizami saying that the Jamaat-e-Islami chief instigated the Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of the occupation Pakistani army, to commit the crimes against humanity including killing the intellectuals in 1971.After the hearing, the AG told reporters, people will be disappointed if Nizami’s punishment is reduced.”Nizami had written an article titled “Badr Dibosh” (Badr Day). In that article Nizami had encouraged the al-Badr force to kill pro-liberation people including the freedom fighters,” he mentioned.Mahbubey Alam also claimed that Nizami’s lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain had admitted that the incidents of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War were true.”So, Nizami must be sentenced to death for his war crimes,” he said.The AG expressed hopes that the Supreme Court would uphold Nizami’s death penalty that handed down to him by the International Crimes Tribunal-1.Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Kamaruzzaman, who were followers of Nizami, had already been sentenced to death and executed for their war crimes, the AG mentioned.Meanwhile, defence lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain, the principal counsel for Nizami, urged the court to acquit his client from all the eight charges brought against the 75-year old Jamaat leader.He, however, prayed to the court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment even if the apex court finds him guilty of his wartime offence.International Crimes Tribunal-1 on October 29 last year handed Nizami the death penalty on four charges of war crimes, including murdering intellectuals. He was awarded life imprisonment on four other charges.On November 23 last year, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami challenged the ICT-1 verdict.
