Dhaka: Death row convict war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdus Subhan file an appeal with Supreme Court challenging death penalty awarded to him by International Crimes Tribunal.

Counsels of Abdus Subhan filed the appeal with the concerned division at about 11:55am on Wednesday.

Abdus Subhan’s lawyer Advocate Shishir Monir told NTV Online, ‘Mawlana Abdus Subhan prayed to the court to acquit him.’

Earlier on 18 February ICT-2 awarded Jamaat leader Abdus Salam with death sentence as he was found guilty in six out of nine charges for committing crimes against humanity during the Independence War of 1971.

On 4 December last year, the three-member tribunal kept the verdict pending after closing the summing-up arguments on factual and law points from both sides over the case.

The second tribunal on 4 December 2014, had kept the date of the verdict on CAV (curia advisory vult, a Latin legal term meaning the court awaits verdict) after around a year-long hearing of the case came to an end with the conclusion of prosecution and defence rebuttal.

The prosecution in their rebuttal and closing arguments sought death for the Jamaat leader for his 1971 crimes and also compensation for the witnesses those were also the victims of his crimes.

Earlier, a total of 31 prosecution witnesses testified against Subhan, narrating the crimes committed by the Jamaat leader during the war of independence. But none vouched for Subhan, although the tribunal allowed the defence to produce three witnesses.

The 78-year-old Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer was indicted on 31 December 2013, on nine counts of crimes against humanity by the ICT-1. On 27 March 2014, the ICT-1 transferred the case to ICT-2 suo moto.