Mir Quasem seeks review of SC verdict

War criminal Mir Quasem Ali yesterday sought review of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld his death penalty for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader submitted a petition to the apex court through his lawyers seeking acquittal of all seven charges for which his punishment was upheld.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 convicted and sentenced him based on hearsay statements of prosecution witnesses, claimed Quasem's principal counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain at a press briefing at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium after filing the review petition.

Mir Quasem Ali was sentenced to death on a “defective” charge, he said, adding that his client is a businessman and a social worker, not a politician.

The lawyer said the ICT-2 convicted Quasem as an abettor of criminals, but the SC has upheld his death penalty considering him as the principal offender.

He expressed the hope that Quasem would get justice from the SC in his review petition.

In the 86-page petition, 14 grounds have been mentioned based on which the SC may consider the review petition, the lawyer added.

He said the SC knows very well when it would fix a date for hearing the review petition of the member of Jamaat's central executive council.

The International Crimes Tribunal on June 6 issued a death warrant for Quasem Ali hours after the SC had released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.

Earlier on November 2, 2014, the ICT-2 handed down capital punishment on 63-year-old Quasem, chief of Chittagong Al-Badr force, for committing crimes against humanity in 1971.

On March 8 this year, the Appellate Division upheld the ICT-2 verdict.

He is considered by many as the main financier of the anti-liberation party.

Quasem allegedly paid $25 million to an American lobbyist firm to carry out a smear campaign to make the war crimes trial controversial, the then law minister Shafique Ahmed told parliament on April 28, 2013.

In its full verdict, the apex court said Quasem is a very resourceful person and “is capable of engaging lobbyist firm by spending $25 million to frustrate the trial of offences of crimes against humanity.”