SC hearing on appeals ends

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday fixed today to decide whether it would call for the alleged case documents about the killing of Ibrahim Kutti in Pirojpur in 1971.
The court came up with the order while “concluding the hearing” of the appeals in the war crimes case against Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
The killing of Ibrahim is one of the two charges for which the International Crimes Tribunal-1 has handed down death penalty to the Jamaat-e-Islami leader.
Since September last year, the SC has been hearing the appeals filed by Sayedee and the government challenging the tribunal's verdict.
The apex court fixed the date after hearing two separate petitions -- one filed by Sayedee and the other by the government -- seeking the court's

directives, so that the alleged case documents are produced before it.
According to Sayedee's defence counsels, Ibrahim's wife Momtaj Begum filed a case with Pirojpur Police Station in January 1972 in connection with the killing of her husband.
Sayedee's name was not mentioned in the case and its charge sheet.
The case statement and its charge sheet were submitted before the tribunal-1. But the court handed down death penalty to Sayedee for the killing of Ibrahim without taking into cognisance the evidence, they said.
On April 12, Sayedee submitted a petition to the Appellate Division of the SC seeking its directives on producing the case documents of Pirojpur Police Station before it.
The government lawyers, however, said the case documents submitted by the defence were “false”.
They also said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had recently visited the Special Tribunal of Pirojpur where the case was supposed to be moved if any such case was actually filed. But he did not find any such documents there.
On April 10, the government filed a petition with the SC seeking its order on calling for the documents from the Special Tribunal of Pirojpur, if there were any such documents available.
Meanwhile, the apex court yesterday said it had “concluded” the hearing on the appeals filed by Sayedee and the government challenging the verdict.
However, the SC's website yesterday afternoon published its today's cause-list (hearing list).
According to the website, the appeals have been enlisted as “part heard” which means that more hearing may be held on the appeals.
Tajul Islam, a defence counsel, told The Daily Star that if the petitions were allowed, the court might hear more arguments on the appeals.
The tribunal-1 on February 28 last year sentenced Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim and one Bisa Bali in Pirojpur during the country's Liberation War in 1971, although it had found him guilty on eight charges.
On March 28 last year, Sayedee filed an appeal with the SC seeking acquittal from all the charges. The same day, the government submitted a separate appeal to it, demanding capital punishment on all eight charges.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain has so far heard arguments on the appeals for 48 days.