The Supreme Court yesterday rejected two petitions filed by convicted war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee seeking its intervention so that two judges abstain from the proceedings of his appeals against the verdict.
Sayedee filed the petitions on Wednesday saying Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik may be biased against the appeal challenging the death sentence passed by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 for his crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War in 1971.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division -- headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and comprised of Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique -- after a hearing rejected the petitions against the SC judges.
The reason behind the order could not be known immediately as the copy of the order is yet to be released.
The five-member SC bench -- including Justices Sinha and Shamsuddin and headed by the chief justice -- then continued hearings on the appeal for the third day.
One of Sayedee's counsels SM Shahjahan read out from pages 20 to 84 of the 120-page judgement passed by ICT-1 on February 28 this year.
The court fixed Sunday for further hearing.