The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday commuted the punishment of Shamsul Haque of Jamalpur to 10 years in jail from his 'jail terms until death' awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on charge of committing crimes during the Liberation War in 1971.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan delivered the verdict after dismissing the appeal filed by Shamsul Haque challenging the International Crimes Tribunal's verdict against him.
On July 18, 2016 International Crimes Tribunal awarded death sentence to three accused in the case, and jail terms until death to five other accused, including Shamsul Haque alias Badar Bhai of Jamalpur, in a case.
According to the case documents, Shamsul Haque and other accused were charged with crimes like murder, mass murder, detention, kidnapping, torture and robbery during the Liberation War.
Md Ashraf Hossain, Md Abdul Mannan, and Md Abdul Bari were given death sentence by the tribunal. Life terms until death were given to Md Shamsul Haque alias Badar Bhai, SM Yusuf Ali, Sharif Ahammed, Harun, and Md Abul Hashem.
Only Shamsul Haque and Yusuf Ali were behind the bar during the announcement of the verdict. They were produced in the court on that day. The remaining accused were shown absconding.
Later Shamsul Haque And Yusuf Ali filed appeal petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against their sentence. Yusuf Ali in the meantime died while his appeal was pending in the SC. The apex court started appeal hearing of Shamsul Haque on July 12 this year.
After concluding the arguments, the apex court on October 18 this year set date to deliver its verdict on the appeal filed by Shamsul Haque.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Assistant Attorney General M Saiful Alam appeared in the court proceedings representing the state, while lawyer SM Shahjahan and Ahsan A Siddiq stood for Shamsul Haque.
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