The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on August 30 on the petition of condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali seeking a review of its earlier judgement that upheld his death penalty for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, fixed the date after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defence on Sunday. On August 24, the bench adjourned the hearing on the petition till today (August 28) after it started that day. Earlier in the day, the apex court rejected a time petition filed by the Jamaat leader. The bench was scheduled to hear the petition on July 25 but it deferred the hearing until August 24 upon a petition filed by the defence seeking its adjournment for two months. On June 20, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique fixed July 25 for hearing the plea following a petition filed by the state. On June 19, Barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem, filed a 68-page review petition with the Appellate Division seeking acquittal of the war criminal. The SC released the full text of its verdict upholding the death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 to Mir Quasem Ali for the crimes he committed against humanity during the Liberation War on June 6. On March 8, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali for his war crimes. The International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Mir Quasem Ali, Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971, to death on November 2, 2014. On November 30, 2014, he filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the death penalty. Top Jamaat-e-Islami financier Quasem, now 64, was president of the Chittagong town unit of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, till November 6, 1971. He was then made general secretary of the East Pakistan Chhatra Sangha. — Dhaka, Aug 28 (UNB)
