SC allows Azharul to appeal against death penalty

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today allowed Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam to move an appeal before this court challenging his death penalty for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation, reports The Daily Star. 

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order after hearing a petition seeking a review of its earlier verdict that upheld the International Crimes Tribunal‍‍`s (ICT) ruling sentencing Azharul to death.

Barrister Ehsan A Siddiq, accompanied by lawyers SM Shahjahan and Mohammad Shishir Manir, represented Azharul during the proceedings.

On July 19, 2020, Azharul, through his lawyers, including the late Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, submitted a 23-page review petition citing 14 grounds for reconsideration of the apex court‍‍`s judgement.

Lawyer Shishir Manir earlier told The Daily Star that the statements of the witnesses did not fully support the charges against Azharul.

The Appellate Division had upheld Azharul‍‍`s death sentence on October 31, 2019.

A four-member bench, led by then-chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, delivered the verdict by majority opinion, nearly five years after the ICT-1 convicted him for crimes committed in Rangpur during the war.

The Supreme Court upheld four charges against Azharul while acquitting him of one.

The full text of the verdict was released on March 15, 2020, allowing him to file a review petition.

Azharul was allegedly the commander of the Al-Badr force and president of Chhatra Sangha, the then-student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in Rangpur, during the war.

Jamaat leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami, Abdul Quader Mollah, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Mir Quasem Ali, and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury were previously executed following Supreme Court verdicts for crimes against humanity in 1971.