Bangladesh SC sets January 14 to hear Mohammad Mujaheed's appeal

DHAKA: Bangladesh Supreme Court today said it will hear the appeal on January 14 against the death penalty handed out to fundamentalist Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, a 1971 war crimes accused.

The five-member Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain fixed January 14 as the date for hearing in the case.

Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General and former Al-Badr commander Mujaheed moved the Appellate Division on August 11, 2013 challenging the court verdict, bdnews24.com reported.

The verdict had ruled him to be 'hanged by the neck' for unleashing his ruthless militia on unarmed intellectuals and for mass murders he planned and executed during the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Hearing on Mujaheed's appeal was supposed to be held after those of two other war crimes convicts, former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Abdul Alim.

But his case has moved forward after death of the two. The International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Mujaheed to death on July 17 after finding him guilty of five of the seven charges levelled against him.