Dhaka: Overturning the death sentence given by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh to Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam, the Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted the conviction of the Islamist leader.
ATM Azharul Islam was slapped with the charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the Liberation War of the country in 1971.
The charge sheet against Azharul Islam stated that the Islamist party leader was responsible for killing 1,256 people, abducting 17, and raping 13 women during the Liberation War in Rangpur region, local media reported. During the Awami League government led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, later deposed and now living in exile, several leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami were rounded up and booked for a variety of crimes, chief among them being 'crimes against humanity'. Human rights watchers and movements outside Bangladesh also had raised their voice against such vindictive action without regard for rule of law.
The apex court also directed the jail authorities to release Azharul from jail immediately if no cases were pending against him, according to local media reports.
Azharul was found guilty of several charges in the past, but a full bench of seven justices of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the judgment following the hearing of the leader's appeal.
In August 2012, he was arrested at his residence in Dhaka's Moghbazar and remained in custody.
In December 2014, the ICT sentenced him to death on five out of the nine charges.
The charges raised against him also included orchestrating mass killings, abduction, and torture in the greater Rangpur area, where over a thousand people were massacred in 1971. The charges against him and fellow Jamaat leaders were widely seen as cooked up and borne out of political vendetta in order to stifle the voice of the opposition at that time.
Challenging the verdict, Azharul filed an appeal in January 2015. However, the Appellate Division, under a bench led by then-Chief Justice Syed Mahmud, upheld the death sentence in October 2019.
After the full verdict was published on March 15, 2020, he submitted a review petition, which the Supreme Court accepted.
The Appellate Division, after hearing the review petition, granted leave to appeal on February 26, 2025 and directed the submission of the case summary which was subsequently submitted.
After hearing the appeal, the court delivered its final judgment on Tuesday, acquitting Azharul, a leading Bangladeshi daily, Prothom Alo, reported.
Last year, the interim government under Muhammad Yunus, after coming to power, lifted the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, through a gazette notification.
The student movement had worked together with Yunus to overthrow the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which suppressed the student protests leading to several deaths. The student protests originally raised objections to the quota system introduced by the regime, and then escalated into a struggle for the resignation of Sheikh Hasina.
(With inputs from IANS)