Dhaka: Hearing of petition filed by war crime convict Mir Quasem Ali seeking review of Supreme Court’s earlier verdict that upheld his death penalty for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, was scheduled to hear the petition.

Earlier, the apex court rejected a time petition filed by the Jamaat leader.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state while Khandker Mahbub Hossain moved for the defence.

The review petition had been kept as item no 5 of the Appellate Division’s cause list for Wednesday for the hearing.

Earlier the bench was scheduled to hear the petition on 25 July.

However, it deferred the hearing until 24 August as the defence counsels filed a petition seeking adjournment of the hearing for two months.

Earlier on 20 June, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foez Siddique fixed 25 July for hearing the pleas following a petition filed by the state.

On 19 June, Barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem, filed a 68-page review petition with the Appellate Division seeking acquittal of the war criminal.

The SC released the full text of its verdict upholding the death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal 2 to Mir Quasem Ali for the crimes he committed against humanity during the Liberation War on 6 June.

On 8 March, the Appellate Division upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali for his war crimes.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Mir Quasem Ali, Al-Badr chief in the port city of Chittagong in 1971, to death on 2 November, 2014.

On 30 November, 2014, he filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the death penalty.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami financier Quasem, now 64, was president of the Chittagong town unit of the Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, till 6 November, 1971.

He was then made general secretary of the East Pakistan Chhatra Sangha.