Mujahid appeal verdict on June 16

The verdict on an appeal by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid against his death sentence awarded by a war crimes tribunal will be delivered on June16, reports bdnews24.com.

A four-member bench of Appellate Division (AD) of Supreme Court (SC), headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, set the date on Wednesday after concluding the hearing.

On July 17, 2013, the second war crimes tribunal sentenced the Jamaat secretary general to death after finding him guilty in five of the seven war crimes charges brought against him.

The former Al-Badr commander moved to the Appellate Division on August 11 the same year, challenging the verdict that sentenced him to death.

He was found guilty of unleashing his ruthless militia on unarmed intellectuals and of mass murders he had planned and executed during Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971.

The hearing on Mujhahid's appeal was held on nine days. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam argued for the state while Khandker Mahmbub Hossain and SM Shajahan represented the defence.

The SC has so far issued verdicts in three war crimes cases. Jamaat assistant

secretaries general Abdul Qauder Molla and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman were sent to the gallows after it upheld the death sentences awarded to them for crimes against humanity.

But it reduced punishment for top Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee from death to life imprisonment. The full copy of Sayedee's appellate verdict was yet to be released.

Jamaat kingpin Ghulam Azam was sentenced to die in prison after the 91-year-old was found guilty by the war crimes tribunal.

His appeal was dismissed after his death in October, 2014.

The appeal by former BNP minister Abdul Alim was also disposed of upon his death.