SC upholds Mojaheed’s death penalty

The Supreme Court (SC) upheld Tuesday the death penalty of Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during Liberation War in 1971, report agencies.
Jamaat-e-Islami called 24-hour countrywide hartal for Wednesday protesting the verdict of the SC.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by chief Justice SK Sinha, delivered the short order of the verdict in a crowded courtroom amid tight security in and around the apex court.
The other judges of the bench are Justice Najmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique.
Mujahid will file a petition to review the Appellate Division verdict that upheld his death sentence for war crimes.
His counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told reporters Tuesday that they think that the prosecution failed to produce adequate witness and evidence against the defendant.
"We will file a review petition within 15 days of the publication of the full verdict," he said. Hossain claimed that the top appeals court has 'partially accepted' their appeal.
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha-led four-member bench acquitted the Jamaat leader from the first charge brought against him, in which the tribunal had ordered the death penalty. It also commuted the death sentence given to him on the seventh charge to life imprisonment, but upheld death for the sixth charge related to the murder of intellectuals.
The Supreme Court has upheld the tribunal's life in prison on the fifth charge and three-year jail term on the third charge.
The appeal hearing began on April 29.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the Appellate Division has given the stay order only on the charge of killing intellectuals, a genocide which had been committed as per blueprint of Al Badar. That Mojaheed had been an Al Badar leader was something commonly known in the then media, he said further.
The Appellate Division has stayed his death sentence taking all these into consideration, he added.  The attorney general informed journalists that the process of the execution of the verdict will start once the complete copy of the verdict is published.
Meanwhile, Makbul Ahmad, acting ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, announced 24-hour hartal (strike) for today (Wednesday) on its website in protest against the death sentence of its secretary general Mojaheed for killing intellectuals during Liberation War in 1971.
The 24-hour shutdown will start from 6.0 am Wednesday and end at 6.0 am Thursday.