Appeal hearing in SC stumbles

Disposal of the appeals filed by seven convicted war criminals against their death sentences is taking time as the Supreme Court has many other urgent and important cases to deal with.

Besides, the apex court cannot hear multiple war crimes appeals as the process of the hearing of each appeal is time consuming.

The Appellate Division of the SC has yet to start hearing any of the seven appeals, although it has so far disposed of separate appeals filed by three war crimes convicts in around two years.

Among the pending appeals, the apex court is now set to deal with the appeal of Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, as it is first in the serial.

Six other appeals in the pipeline are of BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and its leaders Mir Quasem Ali and ATM Azharul Islam, expelled Awami League leader of Brahmanbaria Mobarak Hossain, and former state minister of HM Ershad's government Syed Mohammad Qaisar.

The International Crimes Tribunals, on different dates, had convicted and sentenced them to death for their crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War in 1971.

The Appellate Division had sentenced Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah to death, and upheld the death penalty for Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for their wartime offences. It also jailed another Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee until his death.

Mollah was executed on December 12, 2013, while Kamaruzzaman and Sayedee are now in custody. None of the state and defence counsels could specifically say when the SC would start hearing on the appeal of Mojaheed, and how much time would be needed for the hearing and disposal of all the pending appeals.

Talking to The Daily Star, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam hoped that the Appellate Division would start hearing Mojaheed's appeal next month.

He said he would place arguments before the SC for upholding the ICT-2 verdict that sentenced Mojaheed to death for his wartime offences.

“I don't know how much time the Supreme Court will need to dispose of the appeals filed by the war crimes convicts,” he said.

The top law officer of the state said the main legal point regarding war crimes related cases had already been settled by the SC, and it might not take much time in disposing of other war crimes related appeals. He hoped that the SC would dispose of the pending appeals within two years.

The SC cannot hear multiple war crimes related appeals since it has to deal with many other urgent cases, he added.

SC Registrar Syed Aminul Islam told The Daily Star that it was the discretion of the SC to hear and dispose of any appeal. The SC will decide when it will hold the hearing on Mojaheed's appeal.

Mohammad Shishir Manir, one of the defence lawyers, told this correspondent that the SC might take at least two years for hearing and disposing of the seven war crimes related appeals, if it deals with them in current pace.

The ICT-2 on July 17, 2013, found Mojaheed guilty of five war crimes charges and sentenced him to death on three of those charges.

He filed the appeal with the SC on August 12, 2013, seeking acquittal of all the charges.

The SC on January 14 was set to start hearing his appeal, but it deferred the hearing following an adjournment prayer from the defence.

Since then the appeal has not been included in the list of the SC for its hearing.

The appeals of former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam, who was sentenced for 90 years in imprisonment by ICT-1, and BNP leader Abdul Alim, who was sentenced to imprisonment till death by ICT-2, for committing war crimes have become ineffective after their deaths inside the prison.

Convicted war criminals Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Abul Kalam Azad, popularly known as Bachchu Razakar, are now on the run.