Bangladesh's apex court delays hearing on Islamist party chief's review

Bangladesh's apex court has deferred till May 3 the hearing on the review petition filed by war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami, the country's largest Islamist party chief who remains in a prison in Kashimpur on the outskirts of capital Dhaka.

The four-member bench of Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha fixed the date on Sunday after the defence pleaded for more time.

Nizami on March 29 filed an appeal with the apex court against his death sentence for war crimes in 1971.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on January 6 upheld a death penalty for the 73-year-old Motiur Rahman Nizami over war crimes during the country's war of independence 45 years ago.

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued Nizami's death warrant on March 16 hours after the country's apex court released its full verdict.

If his review petition is rejected, the last option for him will be to seek presidential mercy.

Nizami's party had earlier claimed that the government filed ill-motivated, baseless cases against its top leaders in order to make the party leaderless.

Nizami who served as agriculture and industries minister in ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's 2001-2006 cabinet is among the top Jamaat leaders who have been tried in two war crimes tribunals which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian's Bangladesh Awami League-led government formed in 2010 to bring the perpetrators of 1971 to book.

Three Jamaat leaders, Abdul Quader Molla, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, have been executed.

Apart from them, Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salaudin Quader Chowdhury were executed on November 22 last year.

Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Endit