Govt for quick hearing of review pleas

The government yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court to set a date to hold as early as possible the hearings on the review petitions submitted by war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.

The attorney general's office submitted two petitions to the SC, saying that the review petitions in the cases filed under the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act should be heard and disposed of expeditiously as what was said in the apex court judgment regarding war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah's review petition.

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Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that his office would place the applications before the chamber judge of the Appellate Division on October 21 for hearing.

He would pray to the SC to hold the hearings on the review petitions soon after the court reopens on November 1 after its annual 44-day vacation, the attorney general said, adding a full bench of the Appellate Division would hear the petitions. 

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin on October 14 appealed to the apex court to review its judgments that upheld their death penalty for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

They submitted the review petitions through their lawyers, seeking acquittal on all the charges brought against them.

The SC upheld the capital punishment of the convicts in June and July after hearing their pleas against the verdicts of the war crimes tribunal.

The International Crimes Tribunal issued execution warrants for them on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.