Mujahid to file review petition

Condemned war crimes convict Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid has decided to file a petition seeking the review of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld his death sentence for killing intellectuals during the Liberation War in 1971. “Mujahid has told us he’ll file a review petition against the verdict within 15 days of receiving the copy of the full judgment,” Advocate Shisir Monir said after a group of defence lawyers met him at the Dhaka Central Jail on Saturday morning. “I don’t understand why I’ve been sentenced to death,” Mujahid was quoted by Shisir Monir as saying. Mojahid is mentally strong and physically fit, he added. A five-member team of defence lawyers, led by Shisir Monir, entered the jail around 11:05am and they spent about half an hour with Mujahid from 11:25am. The other members of the team are Moshiul Alam, Kamal Uddin, Najibur Rahman and Matiur Rahman Akand, he added. Earlier on Wednesday, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, upheld the death penalty of the Jamaat leader Mujahid, which had earlier been handed down to the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Secretary General by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2, according to UNB.