The top court upheld a verdict on former Jatiya Party state minister Syed Mohammad Qaiser’s appeal challenging a death sentence in a war crimes case.
A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain issued the verdict on Tuesday (Jan 14) after concluding the hearing.
It's the ninth case in the Appellate Division challenging the verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal.
In December 2014, the tribunal sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence.
A Muslim League leader in 1971, Qaiser was convicted of murder, arson, loot, rape and genocide.
During the war, he formed a local militia in Habiganj, which guided Pakistani forces to villages to attack and abuse Hindus and supporters of Bangladesh’s freedom fighters.
Qaiser went into hiding after liberation and resurfaced in Bangladeshi political scene in 1978 and elected an independent MP from a Sylhet constituency in the parliamentary polls the next year.
He joined the BNP to become the president of the party's Habiganj unit.
Later, he joined HM Ershad's Jatiya Party to be elected MP from a Habiganj constituency in 1988 and served as the state minister for agriculture under the military dictator’s regime.