Dhaka: The hearing on appeal filed by condemned war crimes criminal Mir Quasem Ali against his death sentence has been began in Supreme Court.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, started the hearing at about 9:30am.

The other members of the bench are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hassan Foyez Siddique, Justice Mirza Hossain Haider, and Justice Bazlur Rahman.

Earlier, the apex court bench fixed 2 February for the hearing. However, the hearing was rescheduled on 9 February as the defendants filed a time petition.

On 6 January, both the defence and the prosecution submitted the concise statements of the appeal to the Appellate Division.

On 28 May and 18 August, 2015, the SC asked the defence and prosecution to submit the concise statements of the appeal.

On 30 November, 2014, Mir Quasem Ali filed an appeal with the Supreme Court challenging the death penalty awarded to him by the International Crimes Tribunal 2 for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

On 2 November in the same year, the tribunal had condemned Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali to death for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.