SC extends time to submit summary by March 31

The Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court (SC) again asked Tuesday both the defence and prosecution lawyers to submit by March 31 the concise statement before it on the pending appeal filed by condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami against his death sentence, reports UNB.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, extended the time as both the parties failed to comply with its February 24 order in this regard. The appeal was filed on November 23, 2014.

Passing the order with a caution, the court said if the parties fail to do so within the deadline, the appeal will be deemed to be ready for hearing without any concise statement.

The concise statement contains the main points of the case free from all elaboration and superfluous details.

On October 29, 2014, the three-member tribunal unanimously condemned incumbent Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity, including genocide and murder of intellectuals, during the Liberation War.

The tribunal awarded the Jamaat chief and the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al-Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al-Badr a criminal outfit.