SC commutes war criminal Shamsul’s imprisonment until death to 10 years
The Supreme Court today commuted the punishment of Jamalpur's war criminal Md Shamsul Hoque to 10 years in jail from imprisonment till death in a case filed over committing crimes against humanity and war crimes during the country's Liberation War in 1971.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan delivered the verdict after dismissing the appeal filed by Shamsul challenging the International Crimes Tribunal's verdict against him.
The five other judges of the bench are Justice Borhanuddin, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim.
The grounds on which Shamsul's jail sentence were commuted could not be known.
Details of the apex court verdict will be known after its full text is released, Assistant Attorney General Mohammad Saiful Alam told The Daily Star.
During the hearing of the appeal, Shamsul's lawyer Ehsan A Siddique and SM Raihan prayed to the apex court to acquit their client.
Shamsul, now 81 years old, was innocent and was not involved in any crimes against humanity, the lawyers told the court.
Meanwhile, Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Assistant Attorney General Mohammad Sailful Alam requested to the SC to uphold the judgement of the war crimes tribunal and said the allegations against Shamsul have been proven.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on July 18, 2016 found guilty eight leaders and activists of anti-liberation Al-Badr force and Peace Committee in Jamalpur and handed down death penalty to three of them and imprisonment till death to the five others, including Shamsul.
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