Jamaat leader Azhar’s appeal hearing deferred to May 6

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court deferred to May 6 the hearing of an appeal filed by Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam challenging his conviction and death sentence pronounced in a case filed over crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 1971.

The court said that Azharul Islam’s hearing will be the top of the cause list on that day and hearing will be held in the full bench of the Appellate Division.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order on Tuesday (April 22).

The Appellate Division on February 26 granted his leave to appeal petition, asking the defence to submit the summary of their appeal case within a week and the prosecution to submit a summary of their case within the next two weeks after that. It also had set April 22 for holding a hearing on the appeal.

The ICT-1 on December 30, 2014, sentenced Azhar to death for his crimes against humanity in Rangpur during the War of Liberation. The tribunal, in its judgment, said it found him guilty of five of the total six charges it had framed against him.

ATM Azharul Islam filed the appeal against his conviction on January 28, 2015.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on October 31, 2019, pronounced its judgment, upholding the death sentence of ATM Azharul Islam. On March 25, 2020, the apex court released the full text of that judgment.