SC upholds Qaisar’s death penalty

The Supreme Court (SC) has uphold the death penalty to war criminal and former leader of Jatiya Party Syed Mohammad Qaisar for his crimes against humanity during the War of Independence in 1971.

A four-member bench of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain announced the verdict after rejecting his appeal against the death penalty on Tuesday morning. 

The other members of the bench are Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui, Justice Jinat Ara and Justice Md Nuruzzaman.

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 2 in 2014 indicted Qaisar, a former state minister of the HM Ershad regime, on 16 charges.

The ICT-2 on December 23 in 2014 awarded death penalty to Qaisar on 16 charges including committing crimes against humanity, raping and launching genocide in Habiganj area during the country’s Liberation War by forming an anti-liberation group named “Qaisar Group”.

Later, Qaisar filed an appeal with the Appellate Division seeking acquittal of the charges in which he has been convicted and sentenced.