SC hearing on appeals likely today

The Supreme Court is going to start hearing two appeals filed by convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam and the government against his verdict and a judgement as well as seeking a ban on Jamaat respectively.
The former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer's appeal against his 90-year jail sentence has been enlisted on today's list of the Appellate Division for fixing a date for hearing.
A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain is set to fix the date.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 in its verdict on July 15 last year jailed Ghulam Azam for 90 years for masterminding crimes against humanity and genocide during the Liberation War in 1971.
The tribunal in the verdict said Ghulam Azam, now 92, deserved capital punishment but was given jail terms due to his old age and poor health.
Later on August 5 last year, Ghulam Azam filed an appeal with the SC seeking an overturn of his conviction and the jail sentence claiming the judgement was not a verdict at all in the eye of law, as the charges brought against him had nothing related to offences or crimes against humanity and genocide.
 On the other side, the government on August 12 last year submitted a separate appeal to the apex court seeking death penalty for Ghulam Azam and a ban on the anti-liberation political party Jamaat-e-Islami.
In the appeal, the government said Jamaat had committed crimes against humanity and atrocities during the war and the party had not changed its anti-liberation stance since independence.
The party has not even apologised for its criminal and anti-liberation activities, the appeal petition said, adding that Jamaat was termed a criminal organisation by one of the international crimes tribunals.
 Two other appeals filed by former Jamaat's Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury are also in the pipeline for hearing.
Mojaheed and Salauddin have been convicted and sentenced for atrocities and crimes against humanity they committed in 1971.