Bangladesh SC to hear Jamaat-e-Islami chief's plea against death penalty

Dhaka: Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday deferred till May 3 the hearing of a petition filed by fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami seeking review of his death sentence upheld by the top court for war crimes during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan. Four-member appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha deferred the hearing after the defence pleaded for more time.

"The Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) granted defence the time for the preparedness for the argument...but the court simultaneously said it would accept no petition seeking further deferment of the review hearing," attorney general Mahbubey Alam told reporters.

Nizami's chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said he prayed to the court to shift the date for hearing citing his personal difficulties. 72-year-old Nizami on March 29 filed the petition after the top court rejected his appeal seeking the revocation of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal's 2014 verdict.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on October 29, 2014 and after an appeal hearing the apex court upheld the verdict on January 6 this year. The prison authorities on March 16 served Nizami the death warrant.

The option to seek presidential mercy provides the only remaining hope ahead of Nizami's execution if the apex court rejects the review petition after the hearing.

Nizami was a minister in the past BNP-led four-party alliance government with his Jamaat being its crucial ally. Two ministers of the same cabinet Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of BNP and Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed were earlier executed for the war crimes.

Leader of infamous Al-Badr force in 1971, Nizami is the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity whose fate now hangs in the balance. He was found guilty of systematic killings of more than 450 people alone in his own village home in northwester Pabna siding with the Pakistani troops during the liberation war.

Nizami at that time was also the chief of the student front of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.