Dhaka: The Supreme Court has deferred for a week the hearing on the review petition filed by death row convict Jamaat leader Matiur Rahman Nizami seeking review of death penalty for his crimes against humanity in 1971.

A three-member bench of Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Sunday morning granted the time after the convict’s lawyer moved a petition seeking time for six weeks.

According to the order, the hearing on the review petition filed by Nizami will be held on next week.

Earlier, on 30 March, Jamaat Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami filed a 70-page petition seeking review of the Appellate Division verdict upholding the judgment of the International Crimes Tribunal that had sentenced him to death.

Earlier on 15 March, the Appellate Division (AD) released the full verdict upholding the death sentences of Nizami. There is a provision of filing review petition within 15 days after releasing the full verdict.

On 6 January last, a four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha upheld the death sentences of Nizami, chief of notorious Al-Badr, for committing crimes against humanity in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)1 on 29 October 2014, sentenced the Jamaat chief to death as the 75-year-old convict was found guilty in eight of the total 16 charges.

It is the sixth judgment of the Appellate Division over the appeal filed by convicts of crimes against humanity.

Earlier the Apex Court upheld death sentences of Abdul Quader Mollah, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. In line with the orders of the Apex Court, these four have been executed already.

The Appellate Division, however, commuted the death sentence of Delwar Hossain Sayedee to life imprisonment.