Dhaka: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the death-row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman’s review petition hearing till 5 April.

A four-member bench, headed by chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the order after Kamaruzzaman’s counsels sought an adjournment of the hearing on his review petitions for four weeks, on Tuesday.

Shishir Manir, a counsel for M Kamaruzzaman, said they submitted the petition as senior lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain is physically ill.

The Appellate Division on 9 March had fixed 1 April for hearing on the review petition of condemned war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, also the Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general.

Kamaruzzaman filed a petition on 5 March seeking review of the Appellate Division judgment upholding the death sentence awarded by the tribunal for his crimes against humanity during the Independence War in 1971.

On 9 May, 2013, the tribunal condemned the Jamaat leader M Kamaruzzaman, a 1971 operator of infamous Al Badr vigilante outfit, to death for his crimes against humanity, including murder, abduction, torture, rape and mass killing during the Independence War.

In 3 November 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal 2 that had condemned the Jamaat leader to death.

On 18 February, the International Crimes Tribunal 2 issued a death warrant for Kamaruzzaman after receiving the full text of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld his death penalty for his crimes against humanity during 1971.

On the same day, the prison authorities read out the death warrant to Kamaruzzaman.