Dhaka: The government on Wednesday submitted an appeal with the Supreme Court against the trial court’s verdict that had jailed fugitive Engineer A Jabbar of Pirojpur, a former MP of Jatiya Party (Ershad), unto death for his 1971 war crimes, seeking his capital punishment.  

Talking to reporters, deputy attorney general (DAG) Ikramul Huq Tutul said the application for seeking appeal containing 378 pages was filed with the relevant section of the Appellate Division.

The DAG said the government considers the trial court verdict as an error in law showing lenient view in awarding sentence despite the prosecution proved all the five war crimes charges beyond reasonable doubt. The law does not permit to commute sentence considering age, he added.  

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on 24 February jailed 83-year-old fugitive Engineer A Jabbar of Pirojpur unto death along with fine of Tk 10,000,00 for his crimes against humanity, especially genocide, during the 1971 War of Liberation.  

The tribunal took the view of the existence of mitigating circumstances in awarding punishment, namely the old age of the convict.

Fugitive convict war criminal Jabbar is believed living in the USA along with his family.