SC acquits Mobarak of war crimes charges

The Supreme Court has acquitted a condemned convict in a case filed over crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

Yesterday, the apex court overturned the 2014 death sentence of Md Mobarak Hossain, originally handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal-1, clearing the way for his release from jail.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, delivered the judgment after hearing an appeal filed by Mobarak, challenging the ICT-1 verdict.

The full text of the Supreme Court's verdict is yet to be released.

On May 27 this year, the apex court acquitted Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam of similar charges. Azharul was released from jail the following day.

Mobarak's lawyer, Barrister Imran A Siddiq, told The Daily Star that his client would be released from jail custody once an advance order from the SC reaches the authorities of Kashimpur jail.

Mobarak is currently receiving treatment at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, he added.

Senior Advocate SM Shahjahan and Barrister Imran represented Mobarak during the appeal hearing, while Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim appeared on behalf of the state.

On November 24, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Mobarak, a Jamaat-e-Islami leader from Brahmanbaria who later joined the Awami League, to death for abducting and killing 33 people from Tanmandayl village during the war in 1971.

In the same verdict, the tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment for another war crime charge and acquitted him of three other charges.

Mobarak filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on December 18, 2014, through his lawyers, challenging the tribunal's ruling.