The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has concluded hearings on Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam’s review petition challenging his death sentence for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
The court has set May 27 as the date for delivering its verdict.
A five-member bench led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed had earlier accepted Azharul’s review plea and began hearings on April 22.
Azharul was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal on December 30, 2014, for his involvement in mass killings, abductions, and torture in the greater Rangpur region—where over 1,400 people were killed in 1971.
He filed an appeal against the verdict on January 28, 2015, but the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence on October 31, 2019. Following the release of the full verdict on March 15, 2020, Azharul filed a review petition.
He was arrested from his Moghbazar residence on August 22, 2012, and has remained in custody since.
