Dhaka: The Appellate Division is scheduled to hear the plea of 1971 Al-Badr commander and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali seeking review of the apex court judgement that upheld death for him for committing crimes against humanity.

The matter is kept as item number five in the cause list for Wednesday by the AC of Supreme Court on its website.  

The apex court on July 25 set August 24 for holding the hearing while accepting a time plea filed by Mir Quasem.  

A five-member Appellate Division panel headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha adjourned the hearing as Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, chief counsel for Mir Quasem, pleaded for two months time saying he needs this for preparation to take part in the hearing.  

Earlier on June 19, the 1971 Al-Badr commander, known as Bengali Khan for his close association with Pakistani occupation army, filed the 68-page review plea to the department concerned of the apex court, seeking acquittal on 14 grounds.  

On June 6, 2016, the apex court released the full text of its 244-page judgement. The tribunal, which initially sentenced him to death for his 1971 crimes, also issued death warrant on the same day against Mir Quasem, paving way for executing him for his role in 1971.   

Mir Quasem was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 on November 2, 2014. He later filed an appeal with the Appellate Division against his conviction. The apex court on March 8, 2016, upheld his death, with Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha pronouncing, ‘The sentence (of the tribunal) is maintained.’  

Mir Quasem was arrested on June 17, 2012 in Dhaka South City’s Motijheel area and was kept at Kashimpur High Security Jail. Hailed from Munshidangi Sutalori of Harirampur upazilla in Manikganj, he joined Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat, in 1967, when he was a student of Chittagong Collegiate School.  

He along with his cohorts from ICS and Jamaat, set up torture camps at different locations in Chittagong town and used to detain, persecute and kill pro-independence people there and dump their bodies to River Karnaphuli.