The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday deferred till November 17 the hearings on the petitions filed by condemned war criminals Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury seeking review of its judgements that upheld death penalties for their crimes against humanity during Liberation War in 1971.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order accepting time petitions submitted by Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, the chief counsel for Mojaheed and Salauddin. In the petition, the lawyer said they need time for taking preparation to place arguments on the review petitions.
The SC also rejected a petition of Salauddin, pleading to summon eight witnesses to testify for him before the court during review hearing.
"The court rejected the plea saying there is no instance of allowing witnesses in this stage of the trial. We then pleaded to allow us to present video statements of those witnesses before the court, which was also got rejected," Salauddin's chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said.
"After that we sought time for taking part in the hearing, and the court subsequently set November 17 for that," he added.
On October 1, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 sentenced Salauddin to death for his crimes against humanity. He lodged appeal against his sentence on October 29, 2013 and the Appellate Division in its verdict on July 29, 2015, upheld the death sentence for him.