Mujahid death penalty remains the Appellate Division of the SC

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) today upheld the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 verdict sentencing death to Jamaat leader Ali Ahasan Mohammad Mujahid for committing crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation.

A four-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the ICT-2 verdict through a short judgement this morning. The Appellate Division upheld the death sentence for Mujahid for being involved in the killings of the intellectuals.

Yesterday, the Appellate Division kept the matter for announcement of judgement on top of its cause list for today.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, chief counsel for Mujahid, said they would file a petition seeking review of the judgement.

The SC on May 27 set today to pronounce the judgement after holding hearing on the appeal filed by Mujahid for nine days. Earlier on July 17, 2013, the ICT-2 sentenced him to death for his monstrous role during the War of Liberation as the five out of total seven charges were proved beyond any reasonable doubt.

Mujahid, 65, lodged an appeal against the ICT-2 verdict on August 11, 2013, seeking acquittal of the charges of crimes against humanity.

The former Al Badr commander, who played a major role behind killing the intellectuals at the fag end of the war in 1971, was indicted on June 21, 2012.

A total of seventeen prosecution witnesses, including the investigation officer of this case, testified against Mujahid, whereas his younger son Ali Ahmed Mabrur is the sole witness to vouch for him before the tribunal.

Mujahid's lawyers claimed that his name was not in the list of Al Badr commanders or activists that was published by the post-independence government.

‘We’ll seek a review of the Supreme Court judgement,’ AFP quoted defence lawyer Shishir Manir.

Mujahid filed the appeal on 11 August 2013 against the tribunal’s verdict that awarded him death sentence on 17 July in the same year for his crimes against humanity in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 found that five out of seven charges against 65-year-old Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid - including the murder of intellectuals and Hindus - were proved beyond doubt.

The SC has so far disposed of three appeals of Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Abdul Qader Molla, Nayebe Ameer Delwar Hossain Saydee, and it’s another assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.

The Supreme Court, on 17 September 2013, revised the sentence to death penalty of Qader Molla following an appeal by the prosecution that considered the International Crimes Tribunal 2 sentence too light. He was later hanged on 12 December 2013.

In its second verdict on appeal, the SC also revised the ICT verdict awarding death sentence to Saydee reducing it to life term imprisonment on 17 September 2014.

The apex court in its third appeal verdict, upheld the death sentence awarded to Kamaruzzaman on 6 April this year. The death sentence was later executed on 11 April.