War criminal ATM Azharul may file review petition tomorrow

War criminal ATM Azharul Islam's lawyers have prepared a 23-page review petition containing 14 grounds for seeking reconsideration of the Supreme Court verdict that upheld his death penalty for his involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

The review petition will be filed with the apex court tomorrow if the SC administration releases the certified copy of the verdict by this time, Advocate Shishir Manir, a defence lawyer for the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, told The Daily Star today.

"We have prepared the review petition for ATM Azharul Islam, based on the Advocate On Record certificate over the Appellate Division verdict, including 14 grounds on which the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court may consider to exempt him from the charges brought against him", Advocate Shishir Manirsaid, adding that the SC administration is scheduled to give us the certified copy tomorrow.

The defence lawyer said, "One of the four judges of the Appellate Division bench has disagreed with the other three who upheld death penalty for ATM Azharul Islam in few of the charges.  The reasons assigned by the judge in passing dissenting opinions have been included as the main grounds of the review petition."

Citing the grounds, Shishir Manir also said the statements of the witnesses do not fully support the incidents of charges brought against Azharul.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam earlier told The Daily Star that his office will oppose the review petition when the Appellate Division holds hearing on it.

If the SC dismisses the review petition, Azharul will have no option but to seek clemency from the president confessing to his guilt, he said.

"If the Supreme Court dismisses the review petition and the president rejects the mercy petition of Azharul Islam [if he seeks review and mercy], there will be no legal bar for the authorities concerned to execute the death sentence," the attorney general said.

The SC on October 31 last year upheld the death sentence of ATM Azharul Islam. A four-member bench of the SC's Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, by a majority view delivered the verdict around five years after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 handed down capital punishment to Azhar for crimes committed in Rangpur in 1971.

It upheld four charges against Azhar, but acquitted him of another. The SC released the full text of the verdict on March 15 this year, clearing the way for Azharul to move a petition seeking review of the verdict.

Azhar (67), who is now in Gazipur's Kashimpur Jail-2, was the commander of notorious Al-Badr force and president of Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat -- a party which opposed the country's liberation -- in Rangpur during the 1971 war.